Source: Gizmodo | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:30 am

Who Gets the Highest Ad Rates Online? [Voices]

By Michael Learmonth, Senior Editor, Advertising Age

Online ad rates, we’re told, are on an express train to zero, helped along by gagillions of impressions generated by Facebook, Twitter and its ilk, and the networks, exchanges and targeting technologies that allow advertisers to buy audience as a commodity, without dealing with individual sites at all.

And while the recession has put another hit on CPMs — the term ad buyers and sellers use as shorthand for the cost for 1,000 impressions — across the web, some sites can still pimp fat ad rates either by virtue of their reach, specialized audience or unique environment.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:21 am

Taiwan unveils Asia's biggest solar plant: govt

Taiwan has unveiled what it calls Asia's biggest solar power plant as the island, which imports almost all its energy, seeks to tap into clean renewable resources, the government said...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:20 am

Case Study: How Google Hosts & Funds A Copyright-Infringing Web Site [Voices]

By Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-chief, Search Engine Land

Color me tired. I got a report of a site that reprinted one of our articles without permission. Checking it out, I discovered that miserable combination of someone making money off content they don’t own, paying nothing to host that stolen content on Google’s Blogger service and earning off that content through Google’s AdSense ads.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:11 am

Viral Video: The Real Situation (Yes, More "Jersey Shore"!) [BoomTown]

Yesterday, BoomTown posted some of the very funny spoof videos that have been popping up online related to MTV’s appalling-yet-riveting “Jersey Shore.”

Here is an even better one, with some of the actual cast of the reality television show perfectly mocking themselves in yet another terrific Web video from Funny or Die, which seems to be on a roll of late.

The video contemplates the very deep concept of what if “Jersey Shore” is all a joke that those dopes are actually in on.

Incredibly, Mike “The Situation” (it’s all about his very nice abs, seen above), Pauly D (it’s all about his gel-saturated hair) and Snooki (it’s all about her hair too, except it’s the poof) do a surprising good job of acting.

Here’s the video:

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:04 am

"Nerd" and "Geek" Should Be Banned, Professor Says [Voices]

By Steve Lohr, Technology Correspondent, New York Times

The Times ran an article Monday suggesting that what America will need in the future are more “cool nerds.” A playful tweak of the nerd stereotype, to be sure, in an effort to alter it. The people described in the piece were ones with hybrid careers, combining computing with other fields from medicine to Hollywood.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:03 am

RSS Reader Market in Disarray, Continues to Decline [Voices]

By Richard MacManus, Founder and Editor, ReadWriteWeb

One of the interesting trends of 2009 has been the gradual decline of RSS Readers as a way for people to keep up with news and niche topics. Many of us still use them, but less than we used to. I for one still maintain a Google (GOOG) Reader account, however I don’t check it on a daily basis.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Dec 2009 | 1:02 am

With "Avatar," Technology Has Never Looked So Human in Film [Voices]

By Jose Antonio Vargas, Technology and Innovations editor, Huffington Post

Technology has never looked so human in film.

After all the online buzz (some good, others bad), after all the focus on box office receipts (as ever, Deadline’s Nikke Finke has the most comprehensive run-down), after all the attention on whether Hollywood’s reigning techno-geek could create a worthy successor to his Oscar-winning, record-shattering “Titanic,” “Avatar” snowballed through the pre-winter snowstorm of 2009.

James Cameron didn’t just make a sci-fi epic.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: Gizmodo | 23 Dec 2009 | 12:43 am

Toaster Concept Takes Cues From A Printer

By Chris Scott Barr Your average toaster is a pretty basic kitchen gadget. Put in your toast, select the right setting and push down. As long as you’re making only two (or four depending on the toaster)...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Dec 2009 | 12:39 am

Cipher Glass Concept Knows What You're Drinking

By Andrew Liszewski Oh man! If these were actually available I’d buy a whole set in a heartbeat! From designer Damjan Stankovic comes the Cipher Drinking Glass which is unfortunately nothing more...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Dec 2009 | 12:35 am

Target.com's Agressive SEO Tactic Spams Google

eldavojohn writes "Greg Niland is blogging about target.com's aggressive near-spam search engine optimization, and is more than a little critical not only of how this affects the most popular search engine, but also why it will probably persist. If you want an example, search for 'Exercise Bike Clearance' and click the first link."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“Google’s OS required a pretty sophisticated handset and HTC knows how to do that,” says a former HTC executive who worked with the company for two years but didn’t want to be identified because he still works in the wireless industry. “HTC is aggressive and they have the speed of development to get a product to market early.”

For HTC it was an interesting opportunity, though not without its risks.

“When we started to work with Google, we had no visibility at all,” says Wang. “The (Android) platform probably would not even materialize and even if it did, it could be just another one in the market. But we shared the excitement.”

So for three years before the first Android phone would hit the market, HTC poured engineers and researchers into a project aimed to create a phone that would run a brand-new operating system.

“We made the first Google phone that Google engineers used to develop Android,” says Wang. “We had about 50 HTC people roaming around Google campus then, wearing the Google badge and eating the wonderful Google food. That was how deeply the two companies collaborated.”

It also speaks to HTC’s business model, says Greengart. “HTC likes to let someone else build the underpinnings for the phone and for them to work on higher-level stuff,” says Greengart.

Focus on design

Unlike Nokia, HTC has been quick to adapt to fast-changing consumer tastes in mobile phones. When slider phones were all the rage, HTC created the MDA for T-Mobile. Slim phones, touchscreens, Android devices — HTC has them all.

HTC’s ambitious expansion continues. Last year, HTC acquired One & Co., a San Francisco-based industrial design firm that has created products for Nike, Apple and Dell, among others. Over the next three years, it will spend $1 billion to create a new R&D facility near a Taipei suburb.

“We are the second or the third best design house in the world when it comes to mobile phones,” says Horace Luke, chief innovation officer at HTC. “The trick of design is it is not just styling but also great engineering.”

HTC has also been quick to understand that when it comes to mobile phones, looks alone don’t cut it.

“They have done a lot of innovation on software in terms of the user interface,” says Greengart. “HTC shipped a touch phone with a 3-D cube interface before most other handset makers.”

In June, HTC announced Sense, a UI skin that would sit on top of the Android OS. Sense offers widgets for adding new features, brings together contacts from different sources, and allows users to set different profiles for work and home.

“With a lot of smartphones out there you have to go to four different locations — your Gmail, Flickr, Facebook or Twitter — to find what’s up with one person,” says Luke. “But content is content. It doesn’t matter where its comes from.”

Personalization will be another big trend, says Luke. “I firmly believe that the phone you have should never look like the phone I have,” he says.”If you love stocks and financial news that’s what your phone should show. But if I am interested in Hello Kitty and manga then my phone should reflect that.”

It’s an idea Palm first offered up with the Pre. But since HTC’s announcement, Sense has become an important feature in new smartphones including Motorola’s Cliq.

Creating a brand

Apple’s iPhone or Research In Motion’s BlackBerry have become cultural icons. But when was the last time you heard someone say they wanted a “HTC phone?”

Even when the first Android phone was launched last October, it was called the ‘Googlephone’ or T-Mobile G1; the new Googlephone is called the Nexus One. Most customers forget the HTC brand in that context.

That’s what Wang says he wants to change next.

“For many years, HTC has been the company behind the scenes,” he says. “In the earlier days, we did not post our brand on the phones. But three years ago we made a decision within the company to build the HTC brand.”

It’s not just vanity. Smartphones are an intensely competitive market. At the top, Apple and Research In Motion both have strong brand recognition and a growing base of users. In the middle, producers such as Samsung and LG own a huge share of the feature-phone market, but are hungry to sell more smartphones. And at the bottom, contract manufacturers such as Acer and Asus are looking to crawl up the chain. For now, HTC still occupies the lower tiers of brand recognition. A stronger brand would translate to more clout, fatter margins and bigger revenues.

Branding is even more important in the smartphone world, where consumer tastes can shift quickly, crowning new winners and losers every few months. Having a powerful brand can shield a handset maker against some of these shifting winds.

“In my time at HTC, they went from $200 million in revenue to $1 billion,” says the former HTC executive. “But you can’t continue that unless you have a brand.”

“It was becoming harder to innovate from one generation to another without a brand,” admits Wang. “If you create a phone that sells well on one carrier it’s not enough. The next version resets everything.”

But, so far, HTC has not shown its commitment by allocating a hefty marketing budget for branding, says the former HTC executive.

Throwing money around won’t help, says Wang.

“Brand value is like respect, you have to earn it,” he says. “You can’t buy respect. You can spend all the money you want to build the recognition but that doesn’t mean anything. I want the HTC brand to stand for a great experience.”

Creating a global culture

HTC doesn’t want to be just another Taiwanese handset manufacturer. Despite its strong Asian roots, the company has tried to build an international business culture. Almost all of HTC’s senior management is of Asian origin. The company has its headquarters in Taiwan and is listed only on the Taiwanese stock exchange.

Yet the company’s primary language is English. User documentation, technical papers and even all e-mails and staff meetings at HTC’s office in Taiwan are done in English.

“When Peter started at this company, he demanded everyone take an English test before they come in,” says Luke. “He always had a vision that the company would go global.”

Many of HTC’s executives, including company founder Cher Wang, went to graduate school in the United States. But Wang, who belongs to one of Taiwan’s richest families (her father, a plastics tycoon, was named the second-richest man in Taiwan by Forbes magazine last year), rarely grants media interviews.

HTC has also imbibed one of the greatest ideas of American business: It’s okay to fail. HTC’s R&D division called has a “target failure rate” of 95 percent, says Luke. “A research lab has to come up with enough ideas that fail fast and fail early so you can learn and harvest the right ones,” he says. “That’s very different from the culture at Taiwan, where you have to be successful all the time.”

While HTC is unmistakably aligning its future with Android, the company isn’t willing to give up on Windows Mobile — at least publicly.

“Our commitment to Windows Mobile platform is unwavering,” says Wang. “Both platforms are important. They match different people.”

For HTC, the last 10 years have been a rocket-like rise. But the battle to stay ahead of the game has just begun.

“It’s no longer a mystery what it takes to create a differentiated handset,” says Greengart. Handset makers can either build their own operating system and hardware to control the user experience completely, as Apple and Palm have done. Or they can build on top of someone else’s operating system, such as Windows Mobile, Symbian or Android. The danger with the second path is that if you can do it, others can too.

“As LG and Samsung create phones over and over again, they will soon come up with something that can beat HTC’s,” Greengart says. “When you are building on top of someone else’s OS, other people can do that too.”

See Also:

• HTC Introduces Its Third Android Phone
• Now, a $100 Android Smartphone in the HTC Droid Eris
• HTC Droid Eris Review
  
• HTC T-Mobile myTouch 3G Review
  
• HTC Announces New Customizable Android ‘Tattoo’ Phone
• Sprint to Sell the HTC Hero Android Phone
• Sprint HTC Hero Review
  

Photo: HTC Hero (patrick h. lauke/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:50 pm

Court Affirms Injunction Against Microsoft [Voices]

By Brent Kendall and Don Clark, Reporters, The Wall Street Journal

A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed a $290 million patent-infringement judgment that will bar Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) from selling current versions of its flagship Word software.

Microsoft said it has been preparing modified versions of the affected programs that should be ready when the injunction goes into effect on Jan. 11, allowing sales to continue without interruption. The company also indicated the ruling shouldn’t affect its highly anticipated Office 2010 software, due out next year. It also doesn’t affect copies of Word that have already been sold.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a ruling in a case brought by i4i Inc., a Toronto-based technology company that convinced a Texas jury last May that recent versions of Microsoft Word infringed a company software patent that deals with manipulating the architecture of a document.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Source: All Things Digital | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:49 pm

Sauer-Danfoss Inc. Confirms Receipt of Notice From Danfoss A/S Regarding Its Intention to Commence Tender Offer

AMES, Iowa, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sauer-Danfoss Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:34 pm

A $75 dream tablet for 2012

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

There has been a lot of tablet talk lately. And most have been slated for release in 2010. But we haven’t really looked to the future in terms of tablets. Like, tablets are the future; so what’s the future of the future?

Well Nicholas Negroponte, head of the OLPC, hopes it to look like this. OLPC’s XO-3 is Negroponte’s $75 dream that he himself admits probably won’t happen. But it’s always a good idea to dream these things up, maybe someone else will make it. It is a very cool and innovative idea. What the XO-3 is, is an 8.5x11-inch multitouch tablet, with a backlit display, and made on a semi-flexible plastic. It would use less than a watt of power to keep the 8 gigahertz processor and a Pixel Qi screen powered. This thing is also conceptualized to be half the thickness of the iPhone with an included camera on the back.

Unfortunately, most of this design is based on technology that is not here yet. So if OLPC does decide to take this commercial, they will have to wait for technology to catch up. Let’s just hope they don’t have to wait as long as James Cameron had to to make Avatar.

Read [Engadget]

Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:28 pm

Yahoo’s New Recruitment Effort: Google Ads On Ex-Employee Name Queries

When Delicious founder Joshua Schachter left Yahoo in June of last year, he probably thought he was done with the place. Apparently, he’s not.

As he noticed today, Yahoo is apparently buying ad space from Schachter’s current employer, Google, to promote its own jobs when you do a search for “Joshua Schacter.” As he puts it in the tweet, “yahoo’s running recruiting ads against my name. classy.”

And he’s apparently not the only one. Rasmus Lerdorf, the creator of PHP who left Yahoo last month, noticed the same thing. Classy indeed, Yahoo.

Or maybe Yahoo is just trying to woo these guys (who clearly do regular vanity searches like the rest of us) back, just like they did with Daniel Raffel earlier this year. Regardless, Yahoo might also consider placing some ads there to beef up its latest business plan: A cycling team.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:27 pm

Mozzler Comes Full Circle And Turns Its Realtime News Stream Into A Reader (Private Beta Invites)

Realtime news stream startup Mozzler, which launched at our November Realtime CrunchUp, is bringing more of a news reader feel to its stream search. Mozzler lets you search Twitter, Facebook, and Digg for breaking news. Today it is launching a new way to consume realtime news in private beta which brings the experience back full circle to the look and feel of a typical RSS reader—except that you are not reading RSS feeds directly, you are reading your Twitter and Facebook streams.

The new private beta takes any stories Tweeted out by the people or Lists you follow and expands the into headlines with inline photos and descriptions, much like Brizzly does. It lets you sign in with both your Twitter and Facebook accounts, and merges the two streams. Mozzler founder Chris Were will send invites for the private beta to first 50 people who retweet this post and include the hashtag “#mozzlerbeta.” You can also watch this video demo to find out more.

Mozzler is moving from a realtime news search to more of a stream reader, and enhancing that news stream with photos, headlines and other details it can pull from the underlying links being passed around. When there is no link, the micro-message remains on its own. While this is a better experience for reading news without having to click all over the Web, it does reduce the scanability of just having a list of short Tweets to go through. Stream readers such as Mozzler’s and Brizzly’s are a twist on the traditional RSS readers in that they borrow from their UI, but instead of subscribing to publications, you generally subscribe to people instead and let them share what they are reading no matter what the source.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:19 pm

Background Checks For All With BeenVerified’s iPhone App

Back in September, we wrote about a new iPhone app that would allow you to run a background check on a new lover. It’s mildly creepy, but also kind of interesting. Unfortunately, that app, DateCheck, also charged an arm and a leg to run the checks. A new one gives you some background checking ability for free.

The aptly named Background Check App does exactly what it says: Using data from the site BeenVerified, it allows you to do background checks on people via name queries or their email addresses. And it even allows you to check your contacts on your iPhone with just one click. Just imagine the fun that will bring.

But it’s not all free fun. Unfortunately, you only get three free queries a week. After that, you’re prompted to sign up for a BeenVerified account and pay to get unlimited access. Currently, that will cost you $8-a-month.

Beyond looking up things such as age, address history, and relatives, Background Check App gives you access to criminal records, the properties associated with a person (and their values), and even scans the social networks to find data about the person there, such as pictures of them.

Background Check App is a free download in the App Store. Find it here.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:04 pm

Attention Publishers: Here's a Fantasy Tablet for Your Fantasy Tablet Magazines [MediaMemo]

Since we’ve spent the past few months dreaming about what a magazine might look like on a tablet from the future, why not do a little dreaming about the tablet itself?

Sound good? Then take a gander at the XO-3, a tablet that the people from One Laptop Per Child think they’d like to have available in 2012.

Since it’s pretty much purely conceptual at this stage, the details don’t really matter all that much. But for what it’s worth, according to Forbes, OLPC says the thing will be thinner than the iPhone, may use components from the likes of Plastic Logic and Pixel Qi and will sell for $75.

The gadget, like OLPC’s other projects, is aimed at kids in the developing world. But if the tablet ends up looking–and performing–anything like the concept stuff, then it’s not a stretch to imagine that ordinary consumers would want to get their hands on it too, just as they did with OLPC’s first computer.

Or not. Gizmodo politely suggests that the OLPC guys are about as likely to produce the thing as I am. But then again, the OLPC guys don’t necessarily think they’re going to produce it either; they think that if they make the tablet an open-source project, they can spur someone else into actually producing it.

If you like your slideshows to move without your help, you can check out a full gallery here. If you want to pick your own pix, try this one.

Meanwhile, an update on the tablet everyone is most eager to see: The Wall Street Journal, following up on Apple’s (AAPL) plan to get into the TV subscription business, says that “people briefed by” the company expect its legendary tablet to show up  “by the end of March.”

Source: All Things Digital | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:03 pm

Former Morgan Stanley Coder Gets 2 Years for Bank Card Hack

A former Morgan Stanley coder has been sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the TJX hack.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:00 pm

Linux Leader Red Hat Beats Q3 Views (Investor's Business Daily)

Investor's Business Daily - Led by growth in its subscription revenue, No. 1 open-source vendor Red Hat late Tuesday reported results that beat analyst estimates.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:50 pm

Wikileaks Targets the Local News Frontier

eldavojohn writes "Wikileaks has been pretty successful on a global scale — from ACTA documents to East Anglian e-mails, it is the definitive place to find suppressed documents. But some are saying that now Wikileaks should begin focusing on a local level. From the article: 'The organization has applied for a $532,000 two-year grant from the Knight Foundation to expand the use of its secure, anonymous submission system by local newspapers. The foundation's News Challenge will give as much as $5 million this year to projects that use digital technology to transform community news. WikiLeaks proposes using the grant to encourage local newspapers to include a link to WikiLeaks' secure, anonymous servers so that readers can submit documents on local issues or scandals. The newspapers would have first crack at the material, and after a period of time — perhaps two weeks, [German Wikileaks spokesman Daniel] Schmitt said — the documents would be made public on the main WikiLeaks page.' Anyone reading this who works for a community news source and would like to host sensitive documents with no risk: here is your solution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:45 pm

Court bans sale of Word; Microsoft promises fix (AP)

AP - A federal appeals court ordered Microsoft Corp. to stop selling its Word program in January and pay a Canadian software company $290 million for violating a patent, upholding the judgment of a lower court.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:42 pm

Sphere Team Raises Money From Aol Ventures, True Ventures And Others For New Stealth Startup

One of the founders, Tony Conrad, and several of the investors behind Aol-acquired Sphere are starting their next company. Conrad is joined by Co-Founder Tim Young who is also the CEO/ Founder of Socialcast.

The angel round includes Aol Ventures, True Ventures (Conrad is a partner there), Ron Conway, Scott Kurnit, Founders Collective, Radar Partners (Doug Mackenzie & Kevin Compton) and David Mahoney.

There isn’t much more to say for now until at least some details leak about what the project is about. Sphere, now called Surphace, was bought by Aol in 2008 for around $25 million.

Since there’s no logo, we’re grabbing one from the popular horror movie of the same name. I hope the startup has a happier ending than the movie.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:35 pm

Nielsen: iPhone Is Top Cellphone of 2009 in U.S.

With the year coming to a close, marketing research company Nielsen has compiled its list of top mobile phones in the U.S. market. The no. 1 phone in the United States is Apple’s iPhone 3G, with 4 percent of the market, according to Nielsen’s January-to-October calculations. Research In Motion’s Blackberry follows in a close second with 3.7 percent, and the Motorola RAZR stands at third with 2.3 percent.

More charts, including top brands and websites of 2009, are also available at Nielsen.

See Also:

• iPhone Dethrones Rebel XTi as Most Popular Camera on Flickr …
• iPhone Grabs Top Rank in Smartphone Satisfaction Survey

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:31 pm

Diesel Hybrids Deliver Big Savings to UPS

Tests show that diesel-hybrid trucks provide greater fuel economy and lower operating costs than standard diesel delivery trucks, with comparable performance.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:30 pm

A Peek At ReachLocal’s $100 Million IPO Filing: It’s All About Building A Local Ad Sales Army

In the wake of Google’s dalliance with Yelp, another online local advertising company, ReachLocal, filed for an IPO today to raise $100 million. In a guest post yesterday, Paul Kedrosky suggested that startups like Yelp and others may opt to try their luck with IPOs instead of trying to be acquired. It looks like ReachLocal is ready to get the IPO ball rolling again.

ReachLocal provides a one-stop online advertising shop for about 15,000 small local businesses. A peek at its IPO filing reveals its revenues, profits, and financial condition (see tables below). But the one figure which really stands out is how many sales people it is hiring. The company employs 525 sales people who hock local ads around the world, up from 28 in 2006. Those sales people generated $143 million in revenues the first three quarters of 2009, up 38 percent from the same period in 2008.

The company is obviously hiring like crazy to grab as much market share as possible. While it lists net income of $2.2 million for the first three quarters of the year, that is only because of an accounting gain on the acquisition of an Australian subsidiary. ReachLocal isn’t even producing operating profits, showing a $4.4 million operating loss the first nine months of the year. Although at least it is cashflow positive, producing $12 million in net cash over that period.

Local businesses tend to need a lot of handholding when it comes to advertising online. ReachLocal has a “feet on the street” model, with sales people going door to door to gain business. It adds a personal touch, but that doesn’t seem like it would scale too well. Yelp, in contrast, has about 300 employees total, with 200 of those in sales. And TC50 startup Yext, which sells pay-per-call ads to local businesses, already has 50 sales folks and plans to hire 100 more next year. But Yelp and Yext don’t go knocking door-to-door, so theoretically they should be able to sell more ads with fewer sales people. Nevertheless, there is obviously a battle brewing over who will dominate the online local advertising market and the size of the sales armies will be a key determinant of who ends up winning.

It is a safe bet that ReachLocal will use a big chunk of the $100 million in proceeds it hopes to raise at the IPO on hiring yet more sales people. ReachLocal previously raised about $68 million in venture capital since it was founded in 2004. Investors include VantagePoint Ventures, Rho Capital, and Opportunities Partners.

(Click on the tables below to view larger images).

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:21 pm

Cc:Betty Raises $500K For Email Organization Assistant

Cc:Betty, a free service that helps organize group email threads, has secured $500,000 in funding from Western Technology Investment. The startup previously raised $1.5 million in seed funding in June led by Venrock with investors Seraph Group and Hillsven participating. The company was incubated in Venrock’s offices and officially launched at DEMO in March.

Founded in 2008 by Michael Cerda, Cc:Betty is a service that routes, parses, and organizes email conversations in a simple at-a-glance dashboard so you never have to scour your inbox to find the bits and pieces of a long thread. If you cc “betty@ccbetty.com” on any email, “she” will create a mailspace, which is a webpage, for your entire email thread and will divide important things such as dates, times, people, places, and files and will format them all in one place. Cc:Betty will track messages with up to 100 recipients and can organize emails with up to 20 MB in size, including attachments.

Cc:Betty recently integrated with Twitter, so that users of the service can tweet in and out of a of the collaboration platform, as well as see each other’s latest tweets. The startup also upgraded its service with several new features, including the ability to see maps, images and documents as large thumbnails in email threads, and a list of people in an email conversation. You can also filter content of the thread by participant. The startup’s founder Michael Cerda tells me that the company is also rolling out a stealth SMB centric offering in the near future called Threadbox.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/08/ccbetty-shows-some-twitter-love-integrates-twitter-into-email-organization-platform/

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:15 pm

Opening a Window on the Mac [The Mossberg Solution]

‘Tis almost the night before Christmas, and plenty of households are hoping Santa will slide down the chimney with a new computer in his pack. For longtime Windows users who receive new Apple (AAPL) computers, the unfamiliarity of the Mac operating system could leave them pining for their old PC.

I’ve put together a quick and dirty guide for new Apple users that explains some of the ways the Mac operating system differs from Windows. It’s true: The way you’ll quit programs is different, the keyboards are set up a little differently and even the mouse is different. But once you adjust to these changes, you’ll be fine. Here’s some help:

Key to the Keyboard

Your keyboard is missing a Backspace button, so just use the Delete button, which is set up by default to work as the Backspace button does on a Windows keyboard.

If you want to delete forward on a Mac laptop or a new iMac, hold the Function key (FN) while pressing Delete. And for keyboard shortcuts like pressing Control+C to copy or Control+V to paste on a Windows keyboard, use the Command key, which has a flower-like symbol, in place of Control. Likewise, use the Option key rather than Alt to type special characters.

If you miss Control+Alt+Delete, you can end frustratingly slow applications on the Mac by pressing Command+Option+Escape to force programs to quit.

Mousing Around

The mouse on a desktop Mac looks like it has only one button, and the trackpad on most Mac laptops has no visible buttons at all—the whole pad is a single, large button. These designs send people who usually use two-button mice into a tizzy about how to right click.

Never fear, right click is still near! On Mac laptops, right click by placing two fingers down on the trackpad (it’s easiest with your pointer and middle fingers) and click the trackpad with another finger (like your thumb). New MacBooks also will right click when you place two fingers on the trackpad and press down. Using a one-button Apple mouse, just press Control and then click to see the same right-click functionality. On the Mighty Mouse, enable right-click functionality in System Preferences, then just touch where the right-click button should be and it will work.

If you’re sick of these new shortcuts, just plug in a mouse with a real right-click button and it will likely work on the Mac.

Scroll up or down on any screen by placing two fingers anywhere on the trackpad and motioning up or down. New MacBooks have a large, glass trackpad that responds to iPhone-like multi-touch gestures like pinching to zoom in or out on a screen. Four fingers on the trackpad initiate one of three gestures: Swiping up clears everything off the screen to show the desktop; swiping left or right opens the application switcher view so you can select which application you want; swiping down launches Exposé, which shows all opened windows.

Maximize, Close, Quit

In Windows, users can hit one button in the top right corner of each window to maximize the window; Macs have a small green circle in the top left corner that makes a window larger, but not maximized, so this can be irritating.

Windows lets users close an application by hitting the “X” in the top-right corner; the Mac version of this is a small red dot in the top left, but clicking it only closes a window rather than quitting the application. To do that, you’ll need to press Command+Q or choose to quit from the application menu at the top left of the screen.

Where’s My Stuff?

Rather than opening My Computer as you would on a Windows PC, double click on the desktop icon representing your hard drive to see all files, folders, applications and software programs. Spotlight, located in the top right corner of all screens, can be used to search for anything on your Mac. The Dock, located by default at the bottom of the screen, replaces the taskbar to hold applications, folders and files.Items can be dragged into the dock for quick access. Applications are located on the left side of the Dock; Stacks are on the right and these enable instant folder access from the Dock.Two built-in Stacks come pre-loaded for Documents and Downloads.

The Apple menu, represented with a small apple icon in the top left of any screen, works like parts of the Windows Start menu.

System Preferences in the Mac Dock works much like the Control Panel on a Windows PC. Here, you can change your screensaver, desktop picture, mouse and keyboard settings, energy-saving options, parental controls and network setup.

An optional Mac version of Microsoft Office runs Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs that are compatible with Office files from Windows PCs. Instead of Outlook, Microsoft (MSFT) includes in Mac Office a program with similar functions called Entourage. Macs come out of the box with Apple-produced programs that include Mail, Address Book and iCal. Mail works with a range of email services.

Where’s Internet Explorer?

Instead of Internet Explorer, Apple comes loaded with its own Web browser called Safari, represented in the Dock by a blue and red compass. Browsers like Mozilla’s Firefox or Google (GOOG) Chrome will work on the Mac if you want to download and install them, but Internet Explorer still runs only on Windows.

Ejecting Hurts

On a Windows PC, anything inserted into the computer—from memory cards to USB flash drives—can be pulled out almost anytime with no repercussions. On a Mac, you must first eject these items before you yank them out. Ejecting can be done by dragging the icon representing that item from the desktop into the Trash, Apple’s version of the Windows Recycling Bin, or by selecting an Eject button beside its name. If you delete something on your Mac, it’s tossed into the Trash, and an option in Trash will empty it just as you can empty the Recycling Bin in Windows. Macs offer a Secure Empty Trash command in the Finder that securely deletes files so no part of them can be recovered.

Ask at the Store

If you buy a new Mac, Apple retail stores will recycle your old computer free, and if you buy Apple’s $99-a-year One to One membership, you can take your PC into an Apple retail store to have its data transferred to the Mac or to get personal tutorials. Stores also offer free workshops. More information is at apple.com/findouthow/mac.

–Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Source: All Things Digital | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:13 pm

Casio launches new Hello Kitty digital camera in Korea

Section: Imaging, Digital Cameras

In order to celebrate Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary, Jebsen Korea, an official Korean retailer of Casio, will be selling a new Casio branded digital camera specially designed for Hello Kitty’s momentous occasion.  The new Casio digital camera will be available in two different models; the only difference being the shade of pink. 

It features 12.1MP, 3x optical zoom, Intelligent AF, which allows the camera to accurately zoom in and out and focus automatically depending on lighting conditions.  It comes with another interesting feature called Dynamic Photo, which is useful when making a moving picture, such as in greeting cards.  While the major selling point of this camera is Hello Kitty, it still is a pretty good camera spec wise and will definitely appeal to those who love Hello Kitty and wear their accessories often. 

The suggested retail price is 350,000 KRW, which converts to about $300.

Via [Aving]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:03 pm

Citibank Denies Reported Breach Linked To Russian Gang

alphadogg writes "US authorities are investigating the theft of an estimated tens of millions of dollars from Citibank by criminals using Russian software tailored for the attack, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required to access that link — CNET's coverage here). The security breach at the major US bank was detected mid-year based on traffic from Internet addresses formerly used by the Russian Business Network gang, the WSJ reported today, citing unnamed government sources. The Russian Business Network is a well-known group linked to malicious software, hacking, child pornography, and spam. The FBI is probing the case, the report said. It was not known whether the money had been recovered and a Citibank representative said the company denied any system breach or losses, according to the report."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:01 pm

GeekTip: It's a Cinch to Add Aero Snap to Mac OS X (PC World)

PC World - Mac users don't always like to admit it, but every now and then Microsoft has a good idea or two. One such idea is Windows 7's Aero Snap feature: Drag a window to the left or right side of the screen and it'll "snap" to fill off that half of the screen. Or drag it to the top of the screen to make a window take up the entire screen. Drag the window away from the edges and it returns to its original size.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:53 pm

Microsoft Loses Word Appeal, Will Adjust Program

After losing an appeal in a patent-infringement case, Microsoft said it will tweak the XML editor in its Word application, in order to continue selling one of its most widely used products.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:45 pm

Ultra Clean to Present at the 12th Annual Needham Growth Stock Conference

HAYWARD, Calif., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:42 pm

Why Are Koalas Cute? Thank Eucalyptus and Evolution

Koala cuteness is finally explained by research into the Australian animals' ancestors. It turns out their unique faces evolved so they could eat eucalyptus and still hear each other bellowing across the forest.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:37 pm

BlackBerry data services a no-go in North America

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

According to reports from CrackBerry and other sources, data in BlackBerry’s across North America is said to be down and currently functioning as it should.  Browsing the web and using data intensive apps are said to not be working, or working extremely slowly.  However, more important services such as email is said to be still up and running.  In addition, BlackBerry Messenger is said to be down as well. 

Fortunately for BlackBerry users, only some carriers and some users are experiencing problems, not all BlackBerry users.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly is going on since many BlackBerry’s on different networks are experiencing problems.  Problems with BlackBerry data services seem to be an all too familiar occurrence for users, as another similar problem occurred just a few days ago. 

If you own a BlackBerry, feel free to let us know what your situation is in the comments below.  Stay tuned for any further developments

Via [CrackBerry]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:35 pm

Subscriptions Could Be Apple's Second Attempt to Conquer Video

Multiple sources say that Apple is in talks with Disney and CBS to offer TV subscriptions over the internet (presumably through iTunes). Still, even with this strategy it won't be easy for Apple to crack the digital video market.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:30 pm

Subscriptions Could Be Apple’s Second Attempt to Conquer Video

Apple is planning to offer television subscriptions over the internet, according to multiple industry sources, and so far CBS and Walt Disney are considering the idea.

The subscription service would involve allowing customers access to some TV shows from participating networks for a monthly fee, anonymous sources have told The Wall Street Journal. The subscription content would presumably be integrated into the iTunes Store and iTunes-compatible hardware. Though Disney and CBS are rumored to be interested, the companies have not officially commented on their plans.

Assuming the rumors are true, a subscription model would be Apple’s second major move to seize the digital video market. The Cupertino, California, company introduced the Apple TV in 2007, which stores and plays video content downloaded through iTunes. However, Apple has repeatedly referred to the Apple TV as a “hobby,” implying the product has not made a serious dent in the entertainment market.

Also, the iTunes Store’s offering of video content pales in comparison to competitors’ catalogs. In March, Apple reported the iTunes Store had accumulated 40,000 downloadable TV episodes and 5,000 movies. Around the same time, Netflix, which offers a rental service in addition to streaming-video hardware, had amassed 100,000 DVD titles and 12,000 choices of streaming content.

Apple’s rumored subscription strategy, if successful, could reshape the TV industry by offering a compelling (and cheaper) alternative to the pricey bundles sold by television providers. However, it will be tricky for Apple to get TV networks on board, said James McQuivey, a Forrester analyst who focuses on the consumer video market.

“It’s very hard to walk into these folks’ door and say, ‘I’m going to deliver revenue to you,’ when in the past few years they haven’t been able to do that,” said McQuivey, in a phone interview.

How could Apple persuade networks? The video-subscription strategy could work if Apple implements a streaming model, McQuivey said. That would involve allowing iTunes customers to stream TV shows without downloading them straight to their hard drives.

Studios typically prefer streaming technology over direct downloads. Streaming video is not only difficult to pirate; it also enables studios and networks to track their success. With streaming video, they can insert dynamic advertisements, create interactive experiences that can be measured, and report on success of promotional campaigns and content strategies.

McQuivey added that Apple could possibly offer to handle the bandwidth for streaming TV shows so that a subscription service could cost networks next to nothing.

“Apple could say, ‘We’ll pass revenue to you, and we won’t burden you with a single drop of cost,’” McQuivey speculated.

That would be a plausible gesture, since Apple is currently building a 500,000 square-foot data center in North Carolina, which could handle the bandwidth required for streaming video. The corporation also recently acquired Lala, a music streaming service, whose infrastructure could be shared with video.

However, McQuivey noted that streaming is getting “dirt cheap” thanks to technological innovations, and it’s poised to get even cheaper — so Apple will have to think hard about how to sell the idea of a subscription service to enough networks in order for the model to ever come into fruition.

TV networks will be especially defensive against Apple, in light of the corporation’s takeover of the digital music market. For the first half of 2009, iTunes-purchased songs accounted for 69 percent of the digital music market; Amazon is in a distant second with 8 percent. iTunes also accounts for 25 percent of the overall music market — both physical and digital — according to research firm NPD Group. iTunes is slowly chipping away at CD, still the most popular music format with 65 percent.

“You can’t get away with that in the video industry because they watched what you did, Apple, with music,” McQuivey said. “[TV networks] are going to be looking for short-term deals and offering no exclusive for content. It’s going to be difficult for Apple.”

See Also:

• Why Apple TV Must Evolve to Avoid Extinction
• Apple’s Next Media Frontier Will Be Streaming Video
• What We Want in an Apple TV
• The 27-Inch iMac Is the New Apple TV
• 5 Reasons Why Apple TV Rules, 5 Reasons Why it Sucks

Photo: niallkennedy/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:22 pm

McKool Smith: Appeals Court Upholds Patent Infringement Verdict Against Microsoft

For more information, please contact Alan Bentrup at 800.559.4534, 713-553-3358 (cell) or alan@androvett.com.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:22 pm

Appletell reviews the XShot 2.0 and iPhone case

FROM APPLETELL - The iPhone is great for impromptu pictures, but not so great for taking pictures of yourself. The XShot tries to solve this problem with their XShot 2.0 telescoping monopod and iPhone case.
MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:20 pm

How Can I Contribute To Open Source?

rtobyr writes "I work for a state government agency. That means we can't donate money, because it's a 'gift of public funds.' I had the idea to put up a Web page stating that we 'use the following free software to save tax dollars,' as a way to help spread the word about open source software, but management calls this an 'endorsement.' A mirror server is a no-go as well. I'm certainly not a talented enough programmer to help with development. I've donated $10 here and there out of my own pocket, but I'm hoping you Slashdotters have some creative ideas about how my organization could give something back to the teams that create free software we benefit so much from."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:15 pm

Greg Fleischut plays Andy Statman on guitar

I've posted before about my friend Greg Fleischut, a hypertalented young musician whose crossgenre passion spans bluegrass, freak folk, jazz, and alt.rock. Greg, now 18, is in college studying guitar. Here he is playing a tune by Klezmer clarinetist and mandolinist Andy Statman. Greg translated Statman's tune for the guitar. I find his seemingly-effortless shredding to be quite inspirational. Greg's indie rock band, The Audiophiles, are celebrating the release of their new EP, "Fairytales and Other Tales," with a gig on January 2 at San Francisco's Bottom Of The Hill.




Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:09 pm

3 Reasons iPhone App Development Is Booming - ChannelWeb

Reuters

3 Reasons iPhone App Development Is Booming ChannelWeb The app development momentum behind the Apple iPhone picked up more steam this week with Tapulous, which has created a number of popular applications for the iPhone's App Store, including Tap Tap Revenge, reporting that it ... App Store Success Stories Require a Pinch of SaltPC World IPhone apps: A launch point for a new wave of tech giants?Los Angeles Times Top-Grossing iPhone Apps: NOVA Leads in Debut WeekGamasutra Financial Times -Mediapost.com -CNET News all 328 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:04 pm

Google, Rome, and Empire

2500 years ago, Europe was a filthy mess of dirt roads, battered and cracked by hooves in the summer and rutted by rude wheels in the winter. To travel from the British isles to the tip of the Apennine peninsula would have been the work of months — and messy and rough work at that. Around 450 BC, the Roman Twelve Tables specified (among many other things) the dimensions of roads, and methods borrowed from the Carthaginians standardized their construction to some extent. Mere centuries later, an unprecedented network of trade and communication had been established, some parts of which are still in use today. The Roman roads improved the entire world, and the fact that they were built, managed, and maintained by the Romans was as effective a weapon for Rome as the gladii wielded by the legions who patrolled them.

In the year MMIX Google revealed Chrome OS to the world. It was no more remarkable to onlookers than a single stone-paved road might have been to a Roman citizen in 400 BC. A decade or two from now, an historian might look back on the first few years of Google’s expansion and think: how similar was that Roman’s limited scope of observation to our own! For he saw a road, not the beginnings of an infrastructure which would span continents. And we see a suite of products, vessels for selling ads, not the start of a greater endeavor: a blueprint for connecting humanity in the 21st century.

I don’t mean to overstate Google’s importance. Just as the world was awaiting a Rome to civilize its mountains and valleys and connect their denizens, so now the world has been preparing for a Google to lay down the flagstones of a modern Appian Way.

All-purpose disclaimer: Now may be a good time to admit that I may have massaged reality somewhat to conform to my classical fantasy. Believe it or not, some allowances had to be made in directly equating Google with Imperial Rome. Furthermore, this is written from the point of view of a mere dabbler in the history of both subjects; feel free to correct me. Also, I want to note that I am not in the pay of Google. This was just an idea I had when Chrome OS was announced and thought I’d flesh out. But it’s all in good, thoughtful fun, so bear with me first and object later. Salt grain swallowed? Then let’s proceed. Oh, there’s an appendix.

Veni, vici, viae

Rome’s aims, once the project was well underway, were threefold. The roads allowed Rome’s military to move quickly and comfortably; her armies could move to her defense with rapidity, and strike or threaten any front without fear of leaving another long unfortified. The roads also allowed for trade caravans to move easily between areas of production and consumption, creating better distribution of risk and increasing wealth. Lastly, the roads were a symbol of Rome’s culture and sovereignty: wherever they were found, so too were found the rule of Rome’s law and the protection of her armies.

Do you see any resemblance to Google’s career and prospects? First, Google’s tools and access are its shining centurions. As the leader and standard in search, advertising, and a number of other fundamental areas, Google is able to wield itself like a weapon. And the more fundamental its access (i.e. webpage vs. browser vs. OS), the firmer its grip. Second, by unifying and simplifying the means of access to one another, Google increases commerce and elevates what we might call the “standard of living” of the web. Whatever the tradeoffs may be, the web is a much easier place in which to exist since Google built that particular road. Lastly, although we observe clearly (and increasingly) their pursuit of power and wealth, we should be generous enough to assume some magnanimity on Google’s part. They want to make not just the web, but the world a better place, at least as far as their definition of “better” goes: they want to make it, if you will, a Google Earth (take a groan break here). Not surprisingly, it’s a world with Google at the center of it, modern Moirae, watching and cutting the threads as it sees fit — but it’s also a world founded upon interconnectivity, elegance, and openness, the hallmarks of Google’s products.

Gugle cavat lapidem

The Roman Empire had several kinds of roads, divided roughly into three categories. They correspond nicely with Google’s positioning, and demonstrate its pervasion at every level of the tech world, just as Rome’s roads pervaded every feature of its territory. We’ll look at them in the order which best suits my point.

Viae rusticae, or secondary roads, were roads which already existed in some form before Rome arrived on the scene. These might be repaved or only lightly improved when integrated with the rest of the system, but they were what you might call the local thoroughfares. These are much like Google’s most well-known services: Google search, GMail, Apps, Reader, Android, and so on. Now, to be sure, email was certainly doing just fine before Google started up their own version, along with search, RSS, and so on. Sun, Microsoft, and Apple already laid these roads down. But Google approached them from the imperial, integrative perspective, and these roads, isolated and limited in their original forms, were made into tendrils of a larger system.

Whether Google really improved on the individual service or not doesn’t really matter, because the real improvement they brought was themselves. Google Reader doesn’t seem materially better than, say, Newsfire. GMail, for example, is convenient but lacks features standard in Outlook for years (the exceptions to this rule, Navigation for instance, are pleasant but neither revolutionary nor common). So it’s not that they leapfrogged the competition; the Romans didn’t unnecessarily tear down existing roads just to build new ones. They came, they saw, they integrated. “It may not look much different than it did yesterday,” a Roman Consul might have said at the time, “but today your road leads to Rome.”

Viae vicinales were the capillaries between the arterials of viae rusticae. These small roads were often private ones originally, and once brought into the Roman fold, lent a level of pervasiveness or completeness to the system that even the mighty road-builders could not hope to have achieved on their own. These are Google’s Labs and market experiments. Google Books, Checkout, Sketchup, Knol: not full-scale replacements for services used by everyone, but just big enough that Google can say “we do that” just as a Roman could say “we go there.” Who knows which hamlet might prosper and grow? — and who knows which might suddenly revolt? A good road is the best preparation for either eventuality. And it implies to those on the frontier that their town cannot be insulated from Rome — either from its armies or its auspices.

Of course, Rome isn’t famous for going around labeling and resurfacing existing roads. But it was necessary to do so, for the system they planned wouldn’t be complete without them. And, until recently, that’s pretty much all Google was doing. As much as I enjoy GMail, I would never suggest it changed the world. Why should it? Changing the world wasn’t on the agenda — not then, at least.

Viae publicae were the roads Rome built, and which in turn built Rome. Fashioned according to a rigorous standard (borrowed from the Carthaginians) which ensured usability, longevity, and replicability, these were the highways of empire. Their direction, construction, and maintenance were overseen by censors, senators, and, during Augustus’ reign, the emperor himself. This high level of superintendence was established because these roads weren’t just to make the farmers’ cart rides easier; they were to be the foundation for a world-spanning civilization that they saw lasting, well, forever. The fact that it failed to do so has not escaped my attention, but that’s for later. Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that the roads are still here.

Chrome OS was announced quite a while back, and at the time the response was deafening and confused. “Will it change everything? Will it change anything?” I suggested waiting until we saw it before drawing any conclusions, and now we have. And here’s my conclusion: Chrome OS is Google’s first via publica.

Pax Chromana

Once again, I want to stress that I’m not putting Chrome OS on a pedestal. This isn’t me slobbering over what is clearly a simple and very straightforward OS made for everyday tasks, and which actually looks inadequate for most of what I do. And it’s not me saying Google is a beautiful thing we should all admire and praise. I’m saying that Google, which up to now has been satisfied with laying rambling country roads and tinkering with decaying byways, is about to start laying down asphalt by the mile. And it’s going to change things.

The OS itself, it has been remarked, is no great shakes. Some people think it will be slow, some think it will be limiting, and some think it looks fine. The quality of this pre-release software, however, is not the issue (think Android 1.0 vs. 2.0). And really, its positioning in the OS market isn’t, either; it’ll affect the success of other OSes, but Chrome OS will do exactly what Google wants it to, and they’re happy to maintain it for as long as it takes. As proof, witness the sleeping giant, Android. A year ago, everyone thought it’d be a bit player. Two years from now, half the people in the country will own or have owned an Android device. Like Android, Chrome OS will start slow, get better, and pick up steam. This road may not look like much at first, but, if you’ll pardon my pun, Chrome won’t be built in a day.

Here’s the thing: Google has said that Chrome OS will run on Google-branded hardware. Now, the open source Chromium bit will certainly be compiled to run on a few other devices, but what we’re going to see is a more extreme version of the current Android device market. Viz. a tripartite, tiered offering:

• devices that use the OS because they can (digital photo frames, netbooks)
• devices created to run the OS (MyTouch 3G, Hero)
• devices for which the OS was created (Nexus One)

Hackers will be welcome to put Chrome OS on this or that device, and companies like Asus will put it on nice little netbooks (instead of Android, thank god). But the star of the show will be Google’s first-party devices, whatever they are; chances are they’ll be dirt cheap, dead sexy, and extremely capable. Openness will remain, but the choice to use their devices will be made increasingly easier. And as they lower the bar for adoption, they raise the floor for quality.

We’ve lost track of our metaphor; let us return. Rome improved the viae rusticae, they mapped the via vicinales, and then laid down the highways, making the the disparate roads into a single system. Likewise, first you went to Google. Then Google came to you. And soon it won’t matter, because Google will be everything under the sun if it has its way.

Apple best embodies this approach (”all things to all users”), but their we-know-best approach and expensive hardware (along with some questionable decisions in the 80s) have limited their piece of the pie. Microsoft is like a lumbering beast, rarely misplacing a step, but unable to turn quickly or defend itself against nimble assailants (except to squish or buy them). “Mainstream” Linux, having failed to achieve any traction in the consumer market during these tumultuous times, is unlikely to do so in the future. Google can step in, vertically integrated, with usability and trustworthiness oozing from the seams, and say, “Behold: our hardware, running our OS, providing our many services, able to do 95% of everything you want to do, and it costs less than an iPod.”

And what will happen? Well — they’ll hardly sell any! Everyone already has a computer that does everything they need. But the point of Chrome OS isn’t to sell computers just yet, it’s to create an indivisible unit — the monad of the computing world. It’s hard to overstate how important such a unit will be, and it’s hard to say anything but “be patient” when its marketability is questioned. I said they’d hardly sell any — but at first what were the roads of Rome built for? After a road’s completion, it doubtless laid nearly unused for some time before the import of such a feature was understood by the region. Google’s roads started out empty, but parallel to other roads. Traffic gradually shifted over from the others. And this is the biggest road Google ever made, because it connects all the others. It’s just a matter of time before the chariots start rumbling down it by the thousand.

An interesting flaw in the metaphor here is that Rome never really had to compete with anybody in their road-building, since they were more or less the first. Google’s in a different situation here, and the result is that Google will have a harder time of it, but the user wins out. After all, if the monad provides a certain level of functionality for what we can guess will be a seriously competitive price, then the rest of the computing world will have to match that. As was mentioned, Google has been content to sit by the sidelines and offer itself up, but now they’re actively encroaching on enemy territory; what they did to GPS makers, they’re going to do to everyone else.

This Google monad sets a standard; it is Google’s Twelve Tables. The idea of what constitutes a computer is changing, and Google is striking at the critical moment. It gets to define what the New computer is, because it’s put in place so many of the systems the New computer will use. Google’s foresight becomes clear now; it was always looking toward this future, when it would take this step. Whether it would be successful in building the platform was not clear from the start, but now it’s beyond question. Google’s been loading the boats, and now it’s ready to cross that Rubicon.

Okay, I own that the classical references are getting out of hand. But you have to admit the Latin puns are pretty good so far.

Did I overstate it earlier when I called Chrome OS a blueprint for connecting humanity in the 21st century? Almost certainly. But it represents the first major divergence from traditional connectivity in this century. Since the internet was established, devices and OSes have been designed to accommodate it, but as the internet has grown to become the primary connective medium for the entire world, accommodation is no longer satisfactory. Our modes and media are limited by fundamental design choices in the devices into which they’ve been so rudely squeezed. It’s a square peg/round hole situation.

Chrome OS, by contrast, is designed around the web so completely that it should be considered not child of Vista, OS X, and others, but rather the first ancestor of OSes to come. Chrome OS is the sapiens to their neanderthalensis. It would be as wrong to say that modern humans descended from Neanderthals as from geckos, and in a few decades it will be as wrong to say that whatever the hell we’re using then descended from Windows. It’s a new branch of the phylotechnic tree.

To put it more succinctly: it’s not that the apple fell far from the tree. The apple is a pear.

Mobile OS in mobili

Now let me temper my hyperbole a bit. I’m comparing OSes to primitive humans, for god’s sake.

As you may be aware, the Roman empire did not last forever. It was brought down by hubris, nepotism, decadence, and lead. Google’s downfall will be a little bit different, though considerably more rapid; things move a bit faster these days.

Yes, I think Chrome OS will be the via publica that joins Google’s many pieces into a truly powerful whole. And the next age basically be a playground for Google, and everything will be strange and new as they were when the predecessors of our current OSes were created. Microsoft wasn’t always a lumbering beast; back around 3.1 and 95, Windows was unfamiliar and revolutionary at least to the eyes of many consumers. Now the traditional OS is bloated and stagnant — Google has no need to dramatically put it out of its misery. Progress will see to that, as it saw to DOS (ah, I miss DOS), and Chrome OS will simply be the carefully groomed successor.

I suppose I’m positing the death of Microsoft, which is going to be a drawn out process if it happens at all. But I think we can all agree that though Microsoft and Windows will remain, they will be progressively more marginalized. Once Google lays its road down, it has nothing to lose and everything (everything of Microsoft’s, that is) to gain. Don’t worry, Microsoft, you’ve got a good decade yet.

And Google will tread that path too, maybe 15 years from now. The way things are accelerating, miniaturizing, and converging, the New computer will become obsolete faster than the old one. Has not that always been the case? Google will wear the laurel for a brief, bright period — a transitional period, because as fast as things are changing now, we have nothing left but a succession of transitions. No company can survive long in that, even one which brought about the change it is enduring.

Like the Republic, Google Earth is a fantasy. If we’re going to live in Google’s world, it won’t be for long. Just as the Vandals harried and eventually sacked Rome, so will Google fall to what passes for barbarians in 2020 or so. I’m already so far out on a limb here that I don’t dare speculate what those might be, but doubtless they will exist if history repeats itself — which it does, I am told.

Mort UI vivos docent

After its death, Chrome OS will live on to guide the next generation, just as the viae publicae persist to this day. In ten years, you’re as likely to be riding a chariot as you are to be running Chrome OS, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have left its mark. The past informs the present, and the present conceives the future. Windows 7 and OS X still bear the identifying features of extinct OSes — some code here, a UI element there — and it’s for the best, since people fear the truly new and unfamiliar. Google’s work is here to stay, as is Microsoft’s, Apple’s, Sun’s, and everyone else along the way. Don’t be sad, it’s a circle of life thing.

To conclude (at last), let me say that this little exercise in free association and self-indulgence, while original (or the next best thing: long), doesn’t really say anything new. The tech world, like the rest of the world, moves in cycles. There are small cycles like the yearly “innovation” that keeps us buying products, and there are large cycles, like the move from computers as tools to computers as universal companions. We’re always in the middle of an unknowable number of these cycles, but I thought this one was particularly worthwhile to note. It’s a big change we’re about to witness, and we should be happy to be a part of it. Google is laying the stones for a fundamentally different period of computing and connectivity, though Chrome OS is admittedly a humble beginning. We must try to transcend our role in this — that is to say, the role of a blinkered and skeptical Roman citizen who sees only slaves putting rocks in a row, and instead see it for what it is: the foundation for a mighty empire.

---

Appendix (just in case)
Via/viae: road/roads
Moirae: in classical mythology, arbiters of fate who monitored and cut mortals’ threads of destiny
Veni, vidi, vici: I came, I saw, I conquered
Monad: Greek philosophical concept of singleness and indivisibility, precursor to the atom
Gutta cavat lapidem [non vi sed saepe cadendo]: a water drop hollows a stone [not by force, but by falling often]
Pax Romana: period of enforced peace during Rome’s peak strength
Mobilis in mobili: moving in a moving thing, or changing in a changing medium. Motto of Nemo’s Nautilus.
Mortui vivos docent: the dead instruct the living
Back to top

---

Source: CrunchGear | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:00 pm

Microsoft loses patent appeal, offices everywhere groan

Section: Computers, Software / Applications

A couple of months ago, the tech community got wind of a patent infringement allegation from a Toronto based company i4i against Microsoft. The basic accusations consisted Microsoft Word’s handling of .xml, .docx, and .docm files were infringing upon a certain XML handling algorithm i4i had patented. However, the buzz died within a few minutes of the story being released.

However, that fire has been lit again as Microsoft has lost its appeal case against i4i. And with the date of January 11 being the day that all software containing Word be yanked off the sales list, Microsoft must be getting a bit anxious to deal with the guys over at i4i.

The costly, fast way out would be paying the $290 million in damages to i4i and be done with it. But there most likely be another appeal to a greater court and another legal process. Most industry experts do agree, however, that the most likely outcome of this whole deal will be a settlement between Micorosoft and i4i in which a royalty will be paid to keep Word on the shelves.

Read [Yahoo! News and Engadget]

Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:57 pm

Convert Your Old Cassettes to MP3s

There was a time when all of your family gatherings were recorded on old cassettes. These days, unless you dig out the dusty Walkman, those cassettes are pretty much obsolete. Here's how to recover those long lost recordings and revamp them for today's media players.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:50 pm

"We named the dog Indiana"

Reading an End-of-the-Decade baby name round-up, I ran across this:

The last few years have shown a dramatic increase in the influence of everything from blockbuster movies to celebrity babies on naming trends ... Marley, from the film "Marley & Me," is gaining numbers for both sexes.

"[Parents] may not be able to send their kid to Harvard or buy him or her a celebrity lifestyle, but names are free and can give a piece of that cachet," Murray said.

No Harvard for you, kid. But we named you after a dog. So there's that.

NBC: Emma, Aiden are top baby names of the decade

Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:33 pm

Opera 10.5 Pre-Alpha Is Out, and It's Fast

sgunhouse writes to let us know that, following a leaked internal build over the weekend, Opera Software has now released their official 10.5 pre-alpha. There are no Linux versions yet. And an anonymous reader adds, "Opera's 10.5 pre-alpha includes the Carakan JavaScript Engine. Benchmarks now show that Opera is competitive with Chrome, beating it in Sunspider and other tests. Safari, Firefox, and IE are all behind. This is still pre-alpha, so further speed gains should be expected."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:32 pm

Twitter's Biz Stone Looks Back at 2009 and Forward to 2010: We're Now an Information Network, People! [BoomTown]

While conducting a video tour of Twitter’s hip new HQ in San Francisco, BoomTown sat down to do a video interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone.

I did a similar interview with Stone, as well as CEO Evan Williams, in the spring, which now seems like a bajillion years ago.

In the video below, Stone–who has been traveling the globe of late, taking the Twitter message hither and yon–talked about where the much hyped start-up has been and where it is going.

He called the current period “the end of the beginning” and noted that 2010 will be all about “building a business.”

You think? In the past, I have dubbed him: No-Biz-Like-No-Biz-Plan Stone. But in 2010, I might have to change that to Down-to-Biz Nose-to-the-Grind-Stone.

Stone also said that he wants everyone to start calling Twitter–which has close to 60 million unique monthly visitors globally–an “information network” and not a microblogging service.

You got that one, folks! Information network! Nix on the microblogging, which does sound kind of puny.

It’s probably a good idea, given the social networking comparison to Facebook is growing much faster than Twitter.

In addition, Stone discussed the appointment of COO Dick Costolo, the DNS attack last week, the possibility of flattening traffic and the recent data deals with Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG).

While he did not really give up much information about the finances of those partnerships–and I did not really press, since I was apparently in an unusual holiday mood–Stone said they are the kind of “framework that makes sense” for Twitter’s future revenue.

Check it out for yourself:

Source: All Things Digital | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:25 pm

Need a last minute gift? Telltale’s giftable PC games can help

FROM GAMERTELL - if you still haven’t bought a gift for your gamer friend, don’t panic! Check out some of the PC gaming goodness Telltale has to offer…
MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:17 pm

Westwood College Selects Blackboard to Support Next Generation of Online Learning

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Blackboard Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:14 pm

“Zero Gravity” shelf cushions your turntable with magnetic forces

It’s not really an unprecedented product — magnetic levitation works for high-speed trains and other future toys, so why not your audio gear? Personally I might be a little nervous that the whole thing would just slide off at some point if the fields weren’t aligned right, but they’ve probably addressed that.

It’s really not a bad idea at all. What better way to prevent footsteps and other vibrations from messing with your vinyl? My turntable skips when I walk into the room all the time. Would I spend $500 to have it suspended in the air by magnets? No. But then, I bought my speakers for $5 at a garage sale and the amp crackles like a brush fire. Skipping is the least of my worries.

In conclusion, I have this to say: magnets are awesome, and as long as they’re guaranteed not to mess with the audio components or catapult them off if there’s a sudden shift in charge, then I fully support using this thing.

[via OhGizmo]

Source: CrunchGear | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm

Badass Burton Board Blasts Down Black Diamonds

If you're looking to hurl yourself down a halfpipe or a black diamond, the Burton V-Rocker is your board. Just make sure you have the right skill set before jumping on. This stick is not for beginners.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 22 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm

Pragmatism not idealism: Molleindustria's Every Day The Same Dream

Like a mostly monochromatic mix of Jason Rohrer's momento mori game Passage and Nintendo's Zelda entry Majora's Mask, Every Day The Same Dream -- the latest game from Faith Fighter and McDonald's Videogame creator Molleindustria -- plays at issues of lives led in quiet, soul-sapping desperation by forcing you to subvert your own easy routines. Created in less than a week as an "Art Game" entry for the ongoing Experimental Gameplay Project (the same that's spawned Canabalt, MinMe and, in its original form, the prototype for World of Goo), Same Dream is as stylish as it is somber, even if it is punctuated by brief bursts of hopefulness and player-led humor. I won't spoil the ending (except to say that it's not half as powerful as the final lead-up to it) -- and yes, it does have an ending -- but it comes fully loaded with a gut-punch for anyone who has been or is currently a wage-slave office drone, and is already a pretty clear frontrunner for the indie release of the week. Play it online here, or download a PC and Mac version by scrolling to the bottom.


Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:53 pm

Windows 7 May Finally Get IPv6 Deployed

Esther Schindler writes "According to this article at IT Expert Voice, Windows 7 and IPv6: Useful at Last?, we've had so many predictions that this will be 'the year of IPv6' that most of us have stopped listening. But the network protocol may have new life breathed into it because IPv6 is a requirement for DirectAccess. DirectAccess, a feature in Windows 7, makes remote access a lot easier — and it doesn't require a VPN. (Lisa Vaas interviews security experts and network admins to find out what they think of that idea.) The two articles examine the advantages and disadvantages of DirectAccess, with particular attention to the possibility that Microsoft's sponsorship may give IPv6 the deployment push it has lacked."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:49 pm

Lunarline Hires Cyber War, Cyber Security, and Cyber Terrorism Expert Dr. Julie Mehan for VP of Cyber Security

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Lunarline, Inc. has hired Dr. Julie Mehan to run Lunarline's Cyber Security Division. Dr.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:39 pm

Video: Epic demos Unreal Engine 3 running on the iPhone

The iPhone is already touted for its gaming prowess almost endlessly, but it looks like things are about to take a pretty big leap forward. Epic Games has been crackin' away at an iPhone port of their Unreal Engine 3 -- the engine that powers such jaw-droppingly beautiful games as BioShock, Mirror's Edge, Gears of War 2, and a bunch of others -- and they're now far enough along that they're looking to show it off.

Source: CrunchGear | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:38 pm

Video: Epic demos Unreal Engine 3 running on the iPhone

The iPhone is already touted for its gaming prowess almost endlessly, but it looks like things are about to take a pretty big leap forward. Epic Games has been crackin’ away at an iPhone port of their Unreal Engine 3 — the engine that powers such jaw-droppingly beautiful games as BioShock, Mirror’s Edge, Gears of War 2, and a bunch of others — and they’re now far enough along that they’re looking to show it off.

The first person lucky enough to get some hands-on time with the engine was Anand over at Anandtech, who seems to have walked away impressed. The stuff we’ll see on the iPhone obviously aren’t going to be pixel-for-pixel matches with that found on the current generation of consoles; textures will be downsampled, lighting and shading effectswill be toned down, etc. With that said, it ought to be pretty dang gorgeous.

It’ll still be a while before we see any games powered by the engine. Epic currently has no plans to get into the iPhone space for themselves, though they plan to license the engine some time in the near future. Epic has been been far more aggressive in pricing their engine licensing lately than they have in years prior, going as far as to give it away for free for noncommercial/educational use. Will they keep things cheap for the iPhone variant? We sure hope so.

Lastly: They’re not giving any specifics, but Epic’s also planning on showing off the engine running on a different mobile platform at CES. All things considered, it’s probably not webOS or BlackBerry OS – and that only leaves so many options. Any guesses?

[Via Engadget]

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: MobileCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:36 pm

On2 Announces That Further Adjournment To Be Sole Matter Considered at Special Meeting of Stockholders on December 23, 2009

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On2 Technologies, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:28 pm

Vonage Unveils iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerr ... - PC Magazine

SlashGear (blog)

Vonage Unveils iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerr ... PC Magazine VoIP provider Vonage on Tuesday unveiled apps for the iPhone, the iPod touch, and BlackBerry devices. The apps – available now via the iTunes Store and Vonage's mobile Web site – will provide unlimited international calling to 60 ... LG, RIM top Apple in number of phone usersCNET News Apple's iPhone is most popular phone in US - studyApple Insider Nielsen: iPhone Top Mobile Phone in USE-Gear Macworld -InfoWorld -Washington Post all 78 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:12 pm

Dell Mini 10 netbook gets the Pine Trail treatment, to be available in January

Section: Computers, Netbooks

Dell has officially announced the first of what will most likely be a long line of Pine Trail processor based netbooks. The first is the Mini 10 and it will be available sometime in “early January.” Price wise, it will start at $299.

In terms of features, of course we have the new processor, which in this case is a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450.

Otherwise many of the features remain the same as what we have come to expect in terms of netbooks including the 10.1-inch (1024 x 600 resolution) display, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive and 3 or 6-cell battery. Of course, that 6-cell battery is listed as offering up to 9.5 hours of life.

Thankfully though, there is some room for upgrades here. And some of those include choosing 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive and “available in the coming weeks” a high-definition (1366 x 768 resolution) display.

Other features include an optional TV tuner, Bluetooth and GPS as well as the standard Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, USB ports and VGA-out. Finally, in terms of operating system, the Pine Trail based Mini 10 will be running your choice of Windows 7 Starter or Windows XP. Dell will also be offering an option to choose Ubuntu 9.04, however that will not be available at the time of launch.

Read [Business Wire]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:01 pm

SRA Wins $50 Million Contract from Department of Homeland Security

FAIRFAX, Va., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SRA International, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:01 pm

This SNES controller has a flash drive loaded with ROMs inside

Step 1: Be a huge nerd.
Step 2: Deconstruct a SNES controller and a flash drive.
Step 3: Solder shit.
Step 4: Become an even bigger nerd.

[Ben Heck Forums via hackaday]

Source: CrunchGear | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm

How to Go Hands-Free in the Car

Johnny Law is coming down hard on mobile-phone usage in cars. Here's how to drive and talk safely using a combination of Bluetooth, speakerphones and headsets.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm

U.S.A. Pavilion Secures Support of Leading Global Companies; Continues Successful Effort to Showcase American Innovation and Culture at Shanghai World Expo 2010

Deloitte And Honeywell Take Important Sponsorship Roles PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Deloitte China and Honeywell - two companies widely accepted as industry leaders in their respective sectors - became official sponsors of the U.S.A.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:00 pm

Gulf Of Corinth Rift Studied

Image Caption: This is the view to the west along the Gulf of Corinth active rift showing the bathymetry of the seafloor within the active offshore rift and a cross section beneath the seafloor interpreted from a seismic reflection profile. Red dashed lines on the seafloor and on the coast to the south are the major normal faults which control the region's morphology and the opening of the rift. Colored layers within the cross section represent layers of sediment deposited and deformed as the rift subsides. Credit: NOCS
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:51 pm

Fossil Hints At The Origin Of Whales

Museum Victoria palaeobiologist Dr Erich Fitzgerald has made new groundbreaking discoveries into the origin of baleen whales, based on a 25 million year old fossil found near Torquay in Victoria.Dr Fitzgerald's study, which is published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, is centered on Mammalodon colliveri, a primitive toothed baleen whale, one of a group of whales that includes the largest animal ever to have lived, the blue whale.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:43 pm

Of course there should be a digital picture frame and alarm clock

I’ll just say it. Everything is better with a digital picture frame. If someone put a digital picture frame in a toaster, I would buy three. So with that in mind, imagine my excitement when I saw this Insignia alarm clock with built-in digital picture frame. I know, right? Awesome. </sarcasm>

The NS-DPFC01 is $50 at Best Buy and does the standard duties of a clock. The 320 x 240 3.5-inch screen is backed with 128MB of memory, which is more than enough for about a million and a half pics of my dog Ferrari. Oh, and it comes with a remote for some reason. <via ubergizmo>

Source: CrunchGear | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:30 pm

System Detects Plastic Anti-Personnel Mines

A team of European researchers has devised a method for locating plastic anti-personnel mines, which are manufactured to avoid detection by metal detectors.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:30 pm

Mom calls 911 over son's video game habit

A desperate Boston mom called 911 late Saturday night because she couldn't get her 14-year old son to stop playing video games. A police spokesman said the call "was a little unusual, but by no means is it surprising."


Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:25 pm

iPhone Now The Most Popular Phone In The US

Ranking cell phone companies is a tough thing to do. Some of these companies have a bunch of popular handsets, whilst others have just one or two yet manage to sell as many or more. Rank the companies by cumulative sales across all of their lines and the results will swing one way; rank them model-by-model, and they might look completely different.

Such is the case with the iPhone, according to the latest numbers from The Nielsen Company. While RIM’s marketshare with their BlackBerry line is still nearly double that of Apple’s, the iPhone has now surpassed everything else to become the most popular phone in the US.

The iPhone’s lead is fairly tight, coming in at 4.0% of all mobile phone owners while the BlackBerry 8300 series follows closely behind at 3.7%. The rest of the list is made up primarily of feature phones, outside of appearances by the BlackBerry Storm and the BlackBerry 8100 series in 7th and 10th respectively. As the iPhone 3GS doesn’t make an individual appearance on the list, we’re assuming that they’ve combined the 3G and 3GS into one product line.

A few more interesting tidbits gleaned from the Nielsen report:

• The most popular reason people pick pre-paid phones isn’t because the lack of contract — that’s actually #4 — but because the plans are more straightforward. It’s followed by “No monthly bills” and “Emergency use only”.
• 21% of households now use mobile phones only, with no land line to call their own. This is up from 15% in 2006
• 15% of households now own at least one smartphone

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:24 pm

Ford plans to turn your car into a Wi-Fi hot spot - USA Today

USA Today

Ford plans to turn your car into a Wi-Fi hot spot USA Today Even if you have a surfboard on the roof of your car, now you'll be able to surf without ever getting out. Surf the Web, that is. Ford says it plans to add Wi-Fi to its next-generation Sync in-car connectivity system next year. ... Next-generation Ford Sync makes car a mobile, Wi-Fi hotspotDetroit Free Press Ford cars to become Wi-Fi hot spotsCNET News Ford Plans Wi-Fi On BoardPC World TechNewsWorld -The Detroit News -DailyTech all 113 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:17 pm

Kew: 250 Years And 250 Plants Species Discovered

Canopy giants and miniature fungi among 250 new species discovered in Kew’s 250th anniversary yearGiant rainforest trees, rare and beautiful orchids, spectacular palms, minute fungi, wild coffees and an ancient aquatic plant are among more than 250 new plant and fungi species discovered and described by botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in this, the botanical organization’s 250th anniversary year. The new species come from a wide-range of fascinating locations including Brazil, Cameroon, East Africa, Madagascar, Borneo and New Guinea. Nearly a third are believed to be in danger of extinction.Following in the footsteps of their famous botanical predecessors such as Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Joseph Hooker, and Charles Darwin, taxonomic botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew continue to explore and study the world’s plant and fungal diversity, making astonishing discoveries every year. Their work involves a combination of fieldwork in remote and exotic parts of the world, and research in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s Herbarium, a vast scientific collection of over seven million dried plants specimens, perhaps the largest of its kind in the world. This work has never been more relevant and pressing than in the current era of global climate change and unprecedented loss of biodiversity – especially as we count down to the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010.Professor Stephen Hopper, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, says, “It is not widely known that 2,000 new plant species are discovered worldwide each year. Kew’s botanists make a very significant contribution to this total.“These new discoveries highlight the fact that there is so much of the plant world yet to be discovered and documented. Without knowing what’s out there and where it occurs, we have no scientific basis for effective conservation. It is vital that these areas of botanical science are adequately funded and supported.“As part of our Breathing Planet Program we are committed to accelerating the discovery and classification of plant diversity, and finding solutions for their conservation.Professor David Mabberley, Keeper of the Herbarium, Library, Art and Archives adds, “Achievements like this year’s bumper crop of new species discoveries are only possible because of Kew’s international collaborative network. Successful research in the field and Herbarium depends on our in-country partnerships. We are currently working with 100 countries throughout the world.”The full list of over 290 new discoveries can be found on www.kew.org/new-discoveries, together with profiles of selected species, an interactive map and a link to a specially created Google Earth layer.Examples of the new discoveries include:Canopy Giants from the rainforests of Cameroon – Among the most gigantic of the new species discoveries are three towering rainforest trees discovered by Xander van der Burgt, and colleagues in the Korup National Park in Cameroon. Talbotiella velutina (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/talbotiella-velutina.htm) and Lecomtedoxa plumosa both reach more than 30m into the forest canopy, but Berlinia korupensis (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Berlinia-korupensis.htm), named by Dr Barbara Mackinder, tops these at more than 42m in height with a buttressed trunk almost 1m wide. The Berlinia is a member of the pea family (Leguminosae). It bears beautiful white flowers from which enormous pods some 30cm in length develop. The pods explode when ripe, propelling the seeds ballistically away from the mother tree. Surveys of the Korup National Park revealed that this tree is extremely rare. “We found just 17 trees in our surveys,” says van der Burgt. “Even though Korup is protected, Berlinia korupensis is critically endangered due to human pressures on the park.” The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and in-country collaborators have discovered and described more than 100 new plant species from Cameroon since 1995, although Dr Martin Cheek, leader of the program in Cameroon, comments that ”species discovery is accelerating [with] more than 50 of these new species described since 2005”.From the tallest to the smallest – The smallest species on this year’s new species list are wood-rotting fungi, which are less than a millimeter thick and cover their hosts like a lick of paint. With a Swedish colleague, Dr Brian Spooner and Dr Peter Roberts, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s experts on fungal taxonomy, have just described five of these minute fungi. ”They are small, but they perform a vital role in decomposition of plant material and recycling of nutrients,” says Dr Spooner. These new fungi were among many specimens collected during a joint Anglo-Australian expedition to the Kimberley Region of Western Australia in 1988 and which are still under study. Other miniature discoveries in this year’s list include two new species of Gymnosiphon; bizarre little flowering plants less than 10cm tall that derive their energy not from the sun but from underground fungi (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/gymnosiphon-afro-orientalis.htm). Marie Briggs, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew botanist, who discovered one of these plants in Madagascar in 2007, seems to have a penchant for discovering small plants. While on an expedition to western Madagascar in 2009 she found specimens of a new genus of succulent belonging to the coffee family (Rubiaceae), and which is less than 3cm tall.Mountains of orchids – With just over25,000 species, the orchids are probably the world's largest flowering plant family. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s orchid experts Dr Jeff Wood and Dr Phil Cribb have added 38 new species to the total this year alone. Wood has been studying the orchids of Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Borneo (4095m), for more than a decade and yet continues to discover species new to science. “Kinabalu is unbelievably rich,” says Dr Wood. “In an area of just 1,200 square kilometers 866 different orchids occur, including 13 new species described this year alone”. But there is trouble in paradise; Borneo’s forests are being devastated by widespread logging for timber and oil palm plantations. Dr Wood has named a further 15 new species this year, all of which have been discovered in logging areas in Borneo. Orchids face a further threat – illegal collection for the horticultural trade. Wood’s research is essential – put simply, by placing these spectacular plants on the map, he is throwing them a lifeline.Two dozen new palms – An astounding 24 new species of palm feature on the list. Some are enormous forest canopy trees, such as the 25m tall Cyrtostachys bakeri (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Cyrtostachys-bakeri.htm), discovered by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew palm expert Dr Bill Baker in Papua New Guinea, but most are slender, elegant palms from the rainforest undergrowth. Twenty of the new palms come from Madagascar, which is home to 188 palm species. “After 20 years of research, we’re still finding new species in Madagascar,” says Dr Baker. “A half of all known Madagascar palms have been discovered by Kew botanists.” Less than 10% of Madagascar’s original vegetation remains and a further 200,000-300,000 hectares of forest are destroyed every year. As a result, 90% of Madagascar’s palms, including all of the 20 new species, are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss and destruction of palms for the numerous useful products that they provide, such as food and construction materials. Some are incredibly rare; for example, fewer than 10 individuals of one of the new species, Dypsis humilis (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Dypsis-humilis.htm), were found in a single forest patch used heavily by local people for timber. Innovative conservation strategies involving local communities are needed to save these species. This approach has been effectively employed for the conservation of the ‘suicide palm’, Tahina spectabilis (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Tahina-spectabilis.htm), discovered in Madagascar by a collaborative team led from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2007.The coffee species that could save your daily cup from climate change – Seven wild coffee species, mostly native to the mountains of northern Madagascar, feature on the list. This takes the total number of new coffee species discovered by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and its partners over the past ten years to nearly 30, including some weird and wonderful species. Coffea labatii and Coffea pterocarpa (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Coffea-pterocarpa.htm) have winged fruits, while Coffea namorokensis and Coffea bissetiae are distinctly hairy, and Coffea ambongensis and Coffea boinensis have the largest seeds of any coffee species: their ‘coffee beans’ are more than twice the size of those of Coffea arabica (Arabica coffee www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Coffea-arabica.htm), the main species used in the commercial production of coffee.“We’re still finding new species of coffee, including those directly related to crop plants,” says the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s coffee expert Dr Aaron Davis. “Coffee is the world’s second most traded commodity, after oil, with at least 25 million farming families dependent on its production for their livelihoods, yet we still have much to learn about its wild relatives. We estimate that 70% of wild coffee species are in danger of extinction due to habitat loss and climate change.“Conserving the genetic diversity within this genus has implications for the sustainability of our daily cup, particularly as coffee plantations are highly susceptible to climate change. Those involved in the coffee trade could help to future-proof the industry by working with Kew and its partners to create reserves to conserve coffee genetic resources.”Ancient aquatic plant on the rocks – Isoetes eludens (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/isoetes-eludens.htm), a species of an ancient group of spore-plants known as quillworts, and so named because it eluded its discoverers for seven years, was found in a mountain-top rock pool in a remote corner of Namaqualand, South Africa by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s Director, Professor Stephen Hopper. Botanists are concerned that these exposed temporary rock pools – known by the local Nama people as !gau – are vulnerable to climate change which could mean the 5cm high plant’s days are numbered. Urgent collection of spores and long-term storage in seed banks is an important next step to secure the conservation of this intriguing species. Quillworts date from fossils aged more than 150 million years old in an era before the evolution of flowering plants."To discover a completely new species in a small pool just 2m in diameter and 15cm deep was an unexpected delight. It highlights how much more work is needed to reveal the full diversity of the Cape's world-famous flora," says Professor Hopper.Critically endangered ‘cancer cure’ yam – Dioscorea strydomiana is a critically endangered species from South Africa with only two populations of about 200 plants known in the wild. It does not look like a typical yam – it is shrub-like in appearance with a huge, slow growing, lumpy wooden tuber above the ground measuring up to 1m in height and diameter. The tuber sprouts multiple shoots each spring. The species is regarded as a cancer cure in the region where it grows and as a result is under threat from over-collection by medicinal plant collectors who cut pieces off the tubers. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s yam expert, Dr Paul Wilkin, describes this species as “the most unique and unusual yam I have come across, and probably the most threatened”.Indigos and relatives – Fourteen species of the blue dye indigo producing genus Indigofera have been described as new to science in 2009. Few natural by-products have played as prominent a role in history and in international trade as indigo. It has been a valued dye from the earliest human civilizations because of its compatibility with all types of natural fibers and its ability to be combined with other natural dyes to create a range of colors not possible to produce with synthetic substitutes. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has had a long-standing interest in the research of this genus and these discoveries arose during ongoing research in southern tropical Africa. Of the 14 new species described, 11 are highly localized and are threatened with extinction.Indigofera has more than 750 species and occurs throughout the tropical regions of the world. It is member of Leguminosae (pea family).Discovered in a glasshouse – Most of this year’s discoveries come direct from the wild, but in one case, a new species was found closer to home – in Kew Gardens’ Princess of Wales conservatory. Dr Iain Darbyshire, an expert on African botany, stumbled across Isoglossa variegata (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/isoglossa-variegata.htm) during a lunchtime wander in the glasshouse, where it was used for tropical bedding. Dr Darbyshire, who has contributed 36 new species from the Acanthus family (Acanthaceae) alone to this year’s list, later found specimens in the Herbarium. It was first collected nearly 100 years ago but on another specimen from the 1950s there is a note stating “NAME URGENTLY DESIRED”. Fifty years on, the job is now done, the delay reflecting the overwhelming task of charting the world’s plants. Isoglossa variegata is one of more than 100 new species from East Africa and southern tropical Africa and is part of a major commitment by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, initiated some 50 years ago, to document the flora from this area in two major projects, the Flora of Tropical East Africa and Flora Zambesiaca. These great works, which document around 12,500 and 10,000 species respectively, are now nearing completion.Brazilian passion – Passiflora cristalina (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/passiflora-cristalina.htm) is among the 20 new Brazilian species discovered by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew this year. It is a striking red passionflower with edible egg-shaped fruits and is thought to be pollinated by hummingbirds. Dr Daniela Zappi discovered it during an expedition to the Amazon rainforest in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The plants in this part of the Amazon are poorly known and threatened by deforestation from cattle farming. “We are almost certainly losing species from this region before they are known to science, and our work is a race against time.” says Dr Zappi. “The survey work we have carried out so far is a major step forward in scientific knowledge and is being used by local government agencies to develop a much-needed plan to protect this area.”Also on the list is a new legume genus, Tabaroa catingicola, discovered by Brian Stannard from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and his Brazilian colleagues, on the lower slopes of the Rio de Contas mountain range in southwestern Bahia. The legume family is of great research significance because so many species are used throughout the world as sources of food and medicine. Great potential exists to utilize more species, which is why continued taxonomic research into this family is essential.Knee-high eucalyptus discovered in SW Australia – To many British gardeners the eucalyptus is a fast growing monster; casting shade and debris… usually in the neighbor’s garden. In Australia, however, the over 900 species of eucalypts are integral to the landscape and culture and come in all shapes and sizes. It seems fitting, therefore, that the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s Director, Professor Stephen Hopper, an Australian himself, has recently described two fantastic new species in southwest Australia. “You might expect that the plants of Australia are already well-known,” says Professor Hopper, “but these kinds of finds are far from unusual, especially in the southwest.” Professor Hopper discovered Eucalyptus sweedmaniana (www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Eucalyptus-sweedmaniana.htm) with his colleague Luke Sweedman, after whom he named the plant. It is a dwarf in comparison to most eucalyptus species, forming a low-growing mallee (shrub) around 1m high. It survives the bush fires that are common in the area by dying back to a woody underground rootstock, known as a lignotuber, from which it can resprout later. The second new species (Eucalyptus brandiana www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Eucalyptus-brandiana.htm), although larger than sweedmaniana, isn’t so lucky; it lacks a lignotuber and is killed by fire. Both species are known from just a few hundred plants each and are in need of conservation. However, both have potential as ornamentals in Australia (and perhaps elsewhere), which could provide a welcome backup plan to secure their futures.By December 21, 2009, the total number of new plant and fungi species either published or sent for publication by botanists in the Herbarium is 292 (from 1 January 2009). On average the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and its partners discover and describe 200 new species a year.The highest numbers of new species come from Eastern Africa and tropical southern Africa (more than 100, with 67 from Tanzania alone), Madagascar (32), and Borneo (62). See online map for full breakdown of figures country by country www.kew.org/new-discoveries---Image Caption:  Berlinia korupensis has large and beautiful flowers (Image: Xander van der Burgt) 
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:15 pm

We Now Know That The Brain Controls The Formation Of Bone

The brain acts as a profound regulatory centre, controlling myriad processes throughout the body in ways we are only just beginning to understand.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:11 pm

Enhanced Sweet Taste: This Is Your Tongue On Pot

Endocannabinoid modulation of tongue sweet taste receptors may help control feeding behaviorNew findings from the Monell Center and Kyushu University in Japan report that endocannabinoids act directly on taste receptors on the tongue to enhance sweet taste."Our taste cells may be more involved in regulating our appetites than we had previously known," said study author Robert Margolskee, M.D., Ph.D., a Monell molecular biologist.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:07 pm

UN Chief Urges New Climate Pact After Copenhagen Failings

Amid new diplomatic wrangling over the failure of the Copenhagen summit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed for world powers to make a new effort to secure a legally binding climate deal next year, AFP reported.Upon returning to the UN headquarters, Ban acknowledged international disappointment over the summit accord on restraining rising temperatures.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:05 pm

ASU Scientists Improve Chip Memory By Stacking Cells

New device, based on known materials and an elegant design, helps isolate individual cells and could help meet Moore's Law for years to comeScientists at Arizona State University have developed an elegant method for significantly improving the memory capacity of electronic chips.Led by Michael Kozicki, an ASU electrical engineering professor and director of the Center for Applied Nanoionics, the researchers have shown that they can build stackable memory based on "ionic memory technology," which could make them ideal candidates for storage cells in high-density memory.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:03 pm

Comcast settles bandwidth throttling lawsuit for $16 million. That’s 4 hours of revenue.

Whoever says the legal system in this country is broken, well, you’re right. Comcast was caught tampering with its customers’ packets two years ago. It bitched and moaned like nobody’s business, earning itself no friends. The Federal Communications Commission sanctioned the gigantic corporation in what amounted to a slap on the wrist. Big deal. A class action lawsuit was filed, which was just settled for $16 million. Comcast raked in $34.3 billion in revenue in 2008, meaning that this settlement amounts to four hours of revenue. That’s right: four hours. Take that, corporate America!

If Comcast screwed with your packets between April 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008, you may be entitled to a piece of that $16 million pot.

I write this happy as a clam with my Internet Service Provider, Optimum Online. Nothing wrong with totally uncapped 101/15 megabits per second.

Source: CrunchGear | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

Absolute Software Announces Automatic Share Purchase Plan

Enables Normal Course Issuer Bid purchases to continue during company's quarterly trading blackout period TORONTO, Dec.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Dec 2009 | 12:00 pm

African Nations To Debate Policy On Ivory Sales

On the eve of a an international conference aiming to protect the world’s endangered species, a number of African nations are struggling to reach a consensus on whether they should allow new stockpiles of ivory to be dumped on the markets.As elephant populations have rebounded over most of the continent in recent years and poachers are making higher-than-ever profits on illicit ivory sales, a number of officials have begun arguing that troves of confiscated ivory should be sold legally by the government, thus lowering the market price of the valuable product and making illegal poaching and sales of elephant tusks less profitable to poachers.Zambia and Tanzania in particular, appear to be spearheading the policy shift and have petitioned the Convention on International Trade in International Species (CITES) conference in March of next year to allow them to sell a total of 112 tons of ivory.The current ban on ivory sales was put in place since 1989 to protect rapidly diminishing populations of elephants and rhinos across the continent.  Current elephant populations in Africa are estimated to be somewhere around a half a million, more than half of which are concentrated in southern Africa.  These numbers represent a significant increase over the numbers recorded in the 1980’s but are still nowhere near the millions that are thought to have roamed the continent’s plains a hundred years ago.However, the giant creatures are still rare in western and central regions of the continent are not to be found at all in countries like Burundi, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Gambia.“We don’t want to see elephants survive just in one corner of Africa, just in southern Africa,” said Patrick Omondi of the Kenyan delegation to the Doha talks.The previous CITES conference in 2007 quickly devolved into bitter confrontations between various countries’ delegates, as several ivory rich nations were granted a special exemption and allowed to sell over 100 tons to China and Japan while the general ban on ivory sales was extended for another nine years.Various wildlife protection organizations contended that this massive sale of ivory served to elevate the demand for the precious bone-like substance.  Their arguments have struck an emotional chord for many despite the fact that they seem to fly in the face of the basic laws of economics.The year following the large-scale legalized sales did, however, see a corresponding rise in illegal poaching activities in some countries.  In Kenya, for example, the number of illegally poached elephants skyrocketed from 47 in 2007 to 214 in 2009.“If the trend continues this way, we can expect to see the extinction of the elephant in our lifetime,” stated Patricia Awori of the Pan African Wildlife Conservation Network.“Our position is that the international community should sustain the ban of selling ivory and rhino horns,” added Kenyan Wildlife Minister Noah Wekesa in a news conference with AFP.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:55 am

Just in time for the holidays, Sony begins shipping the Reader Daily Edition

Section: Gadgets / Other, ebooks

Sony originally announced the Reader Daily Edition back in mid-August, and the pre-orders came a while later in mid-November. But at the time, the shipping date was simply left as in time for the holiday season.

Well keeping true to their word, albeit cutting it pretty close, the Sony Reader Daily Edition is now shipping. Which basically means that anyone who was brave enough to place a pre-order should expect to see their reader soon.

According to the official announcement, those who placed their order on or before December 20 will have a before Christmas delivery.

And in a little extra good news, Sony has confirmed that the users of the Reader Daily Edition will be able subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Additionally, they are also teasing with more newspapers and magazines that will be “available soon.”

Via [CrunchGear]

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

  SONY’S READER DAILY EDITION NOW SHIPPING

  SAN DIEGO – December 21, 2009 – Delivering on its goal of getting the newest edition of its Reader family into customers’ hands for the holidays, Sony today announced the Reader Daily Edition™ is now shipping. Pre-orders placed on SonyStyle.com through December 20 should begin arriving to customers within the next 48 hours.

  The Reader Daily Edition has garnered intense interest since its unveiling earlier this year, with pre-orders exceeding expectations. The device gives consumers wireless access to Sony’s Reader™ Store from most of the U.S., via AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network. Book lovers can browse, purchase and download books as well as select newspapers on the go. There are no monthly fees or transaction charges for the basic wireless connectivity and users still have the option to side load personal documents or content from other compatible sites via USB.

  The Reader Daily Edition is optimized for newspapers and offers periodical content in an elegant, easy-to-read format. The Reader Daily Edition’s responsive, menu-driven, seven-inch touch screen lets readers quickly and intuitively navigate newspapers, turn pages, highlight text and take notes with the swipe of a finger or by using the included stylus pen.

  The following newspapers are currently available for wireless delivery to the Reader: The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Sony has agreements in place with a host of additional magazine and newspaper publishers, including exclusive offerings from The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, that will be available soon.
  Key Facts

  · The new Reader Daily Edition is now shipping and pre-orders placed on SonyStyle.com through December 20 should begin arriving to customers’ homes before Christmas.

  · The Reader Daily Edition provides wireless access to Sony’s Reader Store from most of the U.S.

  · Wireless access is provided by AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network.

  · The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune are currently available on the Reader Daily Edition.

  · Sony has agreements in place with a host of additional magazine and newspaper publishers that will be available soon

  · The Reader Daily Edition’s seven-inch wide, full touch screen display provides intuitive navigation and comfortable layout of content, including newspapers and magazines, in portrait or landscape orientation.

  For more details on the Reader Daily Edition please visit sonystyle.com; Sony’s online destination for book lovers – wordsmoveme.com; or the Sony Electronics Community, which includes a corporate blog, video, photos, polls and profiles.

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:54 am

Housing Growth Near National Parks May Limit Conservation Value

The growth of housing near national parks, national forests and wilderness areas within the United States may limit the conservation value that these protected areas were designed to create in the first place, a new study has found.The researchers determined that housing development reduces the potential of these protected areas to serve as a modern-day “Noah’s Ark,” interrupting potential travel corridors for some animals, and altering habitat for others.Results of the study are being published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.“These protected areas have become an amenity that actually attracts housing development,” said Roger Hammer, an Oregon State University sociologist and one of the co-authors of the PNAS study.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:53 am

Study Funded By Nazarian Family Foundation Analyzes Risks, Benefits To Israel Of Increasing Reliance On Natural Gas

Israel can make natural gas usage a bigger part of its energy portfolio without jeopardizing its security, but even more importantly, the nation needs to make conservation measures a priority in its future energy plans, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today."The single most important factor to having a successful energy policy is for Israel to slow the growth in demand for electricity and use its energy more efficiently," said Steven Popper, lead author of the study and a senior economist with U.S.-based RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization with more than 60 years of experience tackling tough policy problems around the globe."Even in those scenarios where conditions favored using natural gas for up to 50 percent of Israel's electricity-generating fuel needs, the country also needs to maintain a diversified mix of fuels – including solar and other non-fossil fuel means – to make it less vulnerable to supply disruptions or abrupt shifts in costs."Israel is running out of capacity to meet its electricity demands.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:50 am

Forty-year-old air sample found

A man in Beaumaris, Australia provided scientists with the oldest sample of air from the southern hemisphere. John Allport, 76, gave a scuba tank that he had filled in 1968 to researchers from the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research labs. From Nature:

The air archive maintained by CSIRO started in 1978, and contains samples of clean air from a station at Cape Grim, Tasmania. It’s the oldest such archive in the world. Now with Allport’s tank, last used in 1970, the record has been extended further.

The air contained traces of propellants, refrigerants and emissions form aluminium smelters. Paul Fraser, who leads CSIRO’s greenhouse gas research team says that the scuba tank is going to be really useful: “If tanks were filled in a clean coastal environment their usefulness in measuring greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chloro-flurocarbons (CFCs) is much broader,” he says.

"Old air discovered"


Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:39 am

Barnes & Noble offers $100 to make up for tardy Nooks - Los Angeles Times

Reuters

Barnes & Noble offers $100 to make up for tardy Nooks Los Angeles Times When Barnes & Noble debuted its Nook in October, the plan was to get the e-reader in stores and to consumers by Christmas. But pre-orders were so strong that the company pulled the in-store plan; all devices would be needed to meet customer demand. ... Barnes & Noble Improves Nook With Firmware UpdateWired News Late Fees for Barnes & Noble's NookBusinessWeek Is the Time Right to Buy an E-Reader?FOXNews ZDNet (blog) -Brighthand -CNET News all 138 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:37 am

Man jailed for eating near-extinct tiger in China

A villager in Yunnan, China was sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined $70k for killing and eating what may have been the last wild Indochinese tiger in China. He claims it was in self-defense; four other villagers who also ate the tiger's meat were sentenced to 3-4 years, too, for "covering up and concealing criminal gains."


Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:33 am

New Airport Screeners Could Save Time, Energy

Holiday travelers: Sick of waiting in long airport security lines? T-rays are here to help.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:30 am

Merry Christmas from Japan's favorite teen beatboxer

[via Kotoripiyopiyo (Japanese) via TokyoMango]


Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:28 am

Top 10 Cryptozoology Stories of 2009

Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman presents his picks for "The Top 10 Cryptozoology Stories of 2009." Several bits previously featured on BB made the cut, including the eating of a near-extinct bird, baby coelacanths, and alligators in the sewers. Others were new to me: an African Pygmy Hippo killed in Australia, the rediscovery of a species of crow and turtle thought to be extinct, and the quest for black panthers in Europe.


Source: Boing Boing | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:28 am

Unofficial tech support returns home for the holidays

Whenever I go home to visit my parents, I always assume a handful of new roles — I become the after-dinner dishwasher, the family chauffeur, and appropriately, my parents' personal tech support. As I go home for the holidays this week, I'll likely be asked to help fix the webcam that "used to be there" or make the font size "so I can see it again." I'll also perform a few regular maintenance tasks that my parents don't even know to ask about, such as running a virus scan, uninstalling unused applications and upgrading their software to the latest versions.

I know this phenomenon isn't unique to just my family. If you're unofficial tech support for family this holiday season like I am, one of the things you'll want to consider is checking that your family is using the latest version of their browser. Why? For me, an up-to-date browser makes a huge difference: not only so that my parents can get to what they need when they're on the web, quickly and easily — whether they're writing email, viewing photo albums online, reading cross-stitching blogs or checking the weather in Chicago — but also so that I can rest assured that they'll be browsing the web more safely and securely with the latest version of the browser with security updates. (More selfishly, a new or up-to-date browser would also make their computer notably faster when I'm visiting home and using their machine!)

Most browsers have released major updates over the past year, and to ensure your family is getting the most speed and security out of their web experience, you can help your family upgrade to the latest version of Google Chrome, Firefox 3.5, Opera 10, Safari 4, or Internet Explorer 8 — just to name a few modern browsers. Moreover, teaching your family what a web browser is and how to update it can help your family keep themselves up-to-date throughout the year. The browser is perhaps the most important piece of software on our computers, as we depend on it to get to the websites and web applications we use every day.

You can also check out Google Pack, a collection of free Google and third-party software that's ready to use in just a few clicks. From anti-virus software to keep a computer more secure and voice applications like Skype to help you keep in touch once you leave, to Google applications like Google Earth (where you can track Santa over Christmas), Google Pack's applications help your family get the most out of their computer.

Happy holidays, one and all — and happy trails on the web!

Posted by Jeffrey Chang, Associate Product Manager, Google Chrome Team
Source: The Official Google Blog | 22 Dec 2009 | 11:00 am

Fujitsu tries something new with new Atom chips

Section: Computers, Netbooks

Today we saw the announcement of the new Atom Pine Trail processors.  Unsurprisingly, manufacturers have already had some time to see what they can do with the new chips.  Makes sense that some would try to jump the gun and announce some new netbooks while we’re still waiting for the massive amount of netbooks that will likely be announced at CES in a few weeks.

One of the more interesting companies to do this is Fujitsu, which has announced it’s second netbook today.  What sets the new Fujitsu LifeBook MH380 from others is it’s strange design.  The netbook will certainly look similar to others at first glance, though the touchpad is a bit different.  The picture features a secondary, circular touchpad next to the main one.  Its purpose is said to be that of scrolling, rather than the more common two-finger or side-of-touchpad approach on other laptops and netbooks.  Could prove an interesting innovation, though I think a good multitouch touchpad with two finger scrolling is the best option.

Aside from the secondary touchpad, the LifeBook MH380 has what looks to be the new standard in netbook specs.  It has 2GB of RAM, 1.66 Atom N450, 250GB HDD, 10.1-inch 1366x768 screen and the standard webcam, wireless, bluetooth and ports.  There’s no price yet, though Fujitsu’s current netbook, the M2011 Mini-Notebook runs for $449, so likely not much more than that.  The LifeBook MH380 has no release date, but expect it to be CES where hopefully we’ll be able to test out the circular scroll trackpad.

Read [Electronista]

Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 10:42 am

HP Investigates Claims of ‘Racist’ Computers

Meet “Black Desi.” He and his friend “White Wanda” made a video titled “HP computers are racist,” which has been a viral hit in recent weeks. (See above.) In an attempt to prove their claim, Desi demonstrated that an HP MediaSmart computer’s facial-tracking software could not follow the movements of his face, but it could do so just fine for his white friend Wanda.

“As soon as White Wanda appears, the camera moves,” Desi says in the video. “Black Desi gets in there — nope! No face recognition anymore, buddy.”

“I’m going on the record and I’m saying it,” he continues. “Hewlett-Packard computers are racist.”

The video, which has attracted about 400,000 views as of this writing, is categorized as a humor clip. But HP has said it’s taking the potential issue seriously.

“HP has been informed of a potential issue with the facial-tracking software included on some of its systems, which appears to occur when insufficient foreground lighting is available,” an HP spokesman said in an e-mail. “We take this seriously and are looking into it with our partners.”

The most entertaining part? The YouTube page proudly displays “Uploaded Using HP MediaSmart.” Priceless.

Via Bloomberg

See Also:

• HP MediaSmart Server
• HP MediaSmart Server EX475

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 10:26 am

Can We Find A Living Planet by 2020?

There was a lot of excitement last week about the discovery of a “waterworld” planet called GJ 1214b, as reported on Discovery News by my colleague Ian O’Neill. This world belongs to an emerging class of planets dubbed “super-Earths.” It ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 10:25 am

Glitter Voltaics Bring Sparkle to Solar

Perfect timing, Sandia National Laboratories. The government-owned lab's new microphotovoltaic cells are highly functional, and festive. The Sandia research team, led by investigator Greg Nielson, created tiny glitter-sized PV cells from crystalline silicon using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) techniques. The cells ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 10:24 am

Youtu.be joins the shortened URL arsenal

Section: Web, Online Music/Video

In light of last weeks release of both Facebook and Google shortened URLs, YouTube has now decided to jump on the bandwagon with its own URL shortener. This time its the very original youtu.be. This will, of course be for shortening only YouTube videos for use on services like Twitter.

If you would like to try out the new feature, go ahead and link up your own YouTube account to Twitter using Autoshare. After that, all of the Tweets that are sent about your recently added video will contain a shortened link.

You can also manually use the URL by:

To use youtu.be manually, simply take a URL like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdeioVndUhs and replace the “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=” with “http://youtu.be/” to get: http://youtu.be/FdeioVndUhs

Read [YouTube Blog]

Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Source: Gadgetell | 22 Dec 2009 | 9:34 am

Taptu iPhone app gets real-time search with OneRiot

Taptu, the mobile search engine, announced a partnership with OneRiot last month to provide real time search results in their mobile-friendly web site. This worked from any mobile client, not just the iPhone. But one of the points of using a smartphone is the use of native applications. Today Taptu announced that they’ve rolled the real-time search results into their iPhone app.

With the new version, we have added integration with OneRiot, including:

• Real-time hot topics right on the home page
• Real-time search results that appear alongside other search results
• Filter for Real-time results

In addition to OneRiot integration, we added a few other things in to this 1.6 update :

• Thousands of new Touch-friendly sites
• Re-tuned the engine to improve relevancy including one-tap access to the most popular site
• Super fast pre-loading of source sides while connected via Wi-Fi
• Bug fixes & memory leak fix

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: MobileCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 9:30 am

Mysteries of Greenland's ice

Ice scientists are changing their thinking about the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the two-mile deep block of ice that holds enough water to fill the Gulf of Mexico and put coastal regions awash in rising seas. Watching surface ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 9:26 am

San Diego Zoo Animals Celebrate the Winter Holidays

Playing in the snow, opening presents, and eating tasty treats are activities enjoyed by non-human members of the animal kingdom too, based on photos recently sent to me by the San Diego Zoo. Meerkats literally jumped for joy when presented ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 9:18 am

Smallest Snowman Ever

Just in time for the holiday blizzards, a little piece of nano-engineering to amuse snowbound citizens. David Cox, a scientist in the Quantum Detection group at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom has built the world's smallest snowman. ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 8:58 am

Fennec, the mobile Firefox, is ‘days away’ from release for your Nokia N900

Fennec, Mozilla’s mobile version of Firefox, is “days away” from release. It will initially be available for the Nokia N900; don’t expect an iPhone version anytime soon.

If all goes according to plan, the browser should be available before the end of the year. It’s been in development for a year and a half.

What will Fennec do to convince you to try it out, much less switch to it full-time (provided you have a Nokia N900, of course)? There’s a clever syncing feature that ensures whatever you view on your desktop version of Firefox will be available on the mobile version. That is, if I’m reading the Wikipedia entry on, say, WrestleMania 10 on my desktop, that same Web page will be displayed when I launch the mobile version of the browser. Handy, yes.

Fennec will have tabbed browsing. The AwesomeBar also makes an appearance.

And yes, there will be Add-Ons. Whether that means you’ll be able to load up Adblock Plus (don’t leave home without it!) and Scriptmonkey and so forth isn’t exactly clear. Maybe you’ll need mobile-specific Add-Ons?

As for that iPhone version jab: since when did Apple approve Apps that replicate “core functionality” of the iPhone? (Mobile Safari says hi.) Your best bet is to hope someone is able to get the code up and running on Apple’s little device, then releases a binary on one of those Jailbroken App repositories.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: MobileCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 8:33 am

Juice Mobile Charger is Both Functional and Fetching

Juice is an all-in-one power-pack, a battery-chargin’, USB-powerin’ box which actually looks good enough to take outside the house (those leafy decorations are thankfully on a pair of charging AAs).

Unlike most designs featured on Yanko’s hallowed concept pages, the Juice, by Hiroaki Tanaka, will actually be in shops early in 2010 (in Japan and Taiwan) and coming to the US soon after, made by a company called Nobil.

The plastic box has a pair of adjustable side-slots to charge both double and triple-A cells, and a USB slot on the top will charge just about anything else. The power comes in from a wall outlets and the Juice itself has an internal battery pack which can be used to top of anything you plug or slot into it while on the go.

These kinds of chargers are becoming pretty essential, especially in the age of Kindles, iPod and even laptops having hidden, non-removable batteries. I have a little pocket-sized battery and charger for my iPod and whenever I’m out for more than a few hours it comes with me.

Juice [Nobil via Yanko]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 8:10 am

Bacteria Power Tiny Machines

While floating in a liquid, common bacteria can turn a variety of tiny gears. Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory say their finding could open up the possibility of microscopic swimmers -- whether natural such as bacteria or artificial such as ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 7:41 am

'Invisible Bracelet' Could Save Lives

A new kind of medical alert technology could send out emergency information during a health crisis.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 Dec 2009 | 7:39 am

NES Emulator Sneaks Into App Store, Already Pulled

Nescaline is a Nintendo NES emulator for the iPhone, which costs $7 and comes with five homebrew NES games. Or it did. The application was pulled from the App store almost immediately when it was found that by simply entering a URL, you could download any pirated ROM and play it.

A cryin’ shame indeed, as it sounded like a pretty good app. According to the Cult of Mac’s resident deviant, John “The Mustache” Brownlee, “Nescaline has a full feature list, including multitouch, light gun and save state support.” All that you need for some retro-gaming fun.

Nintendo should do this itself. Nobody’s going to buy an old NES or SNES to play games, but imagine a SNES emulator on the iPhone inside which you could buy Nintendo games. It wouldn’t be competing with the Big N’s current lineup, and we’d all be happy. There is already a SNES emulator on the Cydia store, the App Store for jailbroken iphones, and it works great. In fact, I lost a good few hours to it last week playing the original and best, Super Mario Kart.

NES emulator Nescaline hits the App Store, but best grab it quick [Cult of Mac]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 7:23 am

Hack Lets You Use a Bluetooth Keyboard With Your iPhone

Now you can use your iPhone 3G, 3GS or second-gen iPod Touch with an external Bluetooth keyboard. The catch is that your iPhone will first have to be jailbroken, or hacked to allow it to run unofficial third party software.

The driver will be available “soon” in the Cydia store (the jailbreak App Store) and will allow you to pair and use an external Bluetooth keyboard with the phone, making it a very viable all-day computer. As long as you’re not writing huge articles, we guess.

The first iteration won’t let you use the keyboard just in any old application, though: You need to use it within the iPhone Bluetooth Keyboard Driver application itself. Luckily, there is a workaround: If you install another package, called Simulated Key Events, it should route the key-presses to any application you like.

We’ll keep a close eye on this and try it out upon release. Really, though, this is something Apple should build in. Sadly, it probably never will, due to the company’s infamously button-phobic boss.

iPhone Bluetooth Keyboard Driver [Keyboard Ringwald]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 6:11 am

NASA Orders Eleven Space Cameras From Nikon

Most people know which brand of camera went to (and stayed on) the Moon: Hasselblad. Those old medium-format cameras could stand up to the extremes of heat and cold, were insanely reliable due to being both solidly built and manual, and as we know, they took great pictures.

But what does NASA use now for its space cameras? Nikons, as it turns out. The agency just ordered 11 shiny-new Nikon D3s DSLRs, along with AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lenses, to be used on board the International Space Station. We imagine that the ultra-wide zoom is essential in such cramped quarters.

These cameras are, says Nikon, completely stock, just like you or I could buy in the store. They’re not the first Nikons in space, either: the company has been supplying NASA with camera from as long ago as 1971, and right now there are around 35 lenses and six D2XS cameras already aboard the ISS. In total, NASA has taken around 700,000 photos with Nikon kit, and now everything is digital we expect the numbers to, ahem, skyrocket.

NASA Orders D3S Digital SLR Cameras and Interchangeable Lenses from Nikon [Nikon]

Photo of Nikon Space Camera, 1983: NASA

See Also:

• Watchmen Movie: Doc Manhattan is a Camera Nerd

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 5:40 am

Enable Web Browsing and Full Catalog Access on International Kindle

Ever since Amazon’s Kindle 2 arrived in Gadget Lab’s Spanish Bureau (aka my apartment), I have been trying to restore its lost functionality. Finally, with some rather annoying account jiggery-pokery, I have enabled full (and free) web access and I can now buy any book I like from the Kindle Store.

To recap, the Kindle International edition shipped in a somewhat crippled state, with access to a (rather small) subset of the Kindle Store’s contents, and with 3G web browsing limited to the Kindle Store itself and to Wikipedia (and worse, the U.S. Wikipedia). Also, there are no for-pay blogs, and no pictures in newspapers. To be fair to Amazon, these problems are caused by international publishing rights and by the wireless carrier AT&T, but it is still a pain.

Regular readers will know we have managed to work around much of this, but last night I managed to turn all these features back on. It’s not pretty, and it has some fiscal penalties, but it works.

The hack is easy, and has been used by those outside the United States to buy Kindle content ever since the U.S.-only v1.0: Amazon ties your Kindle to your billing address, so all you need is a billing address in the U.S. and suddenly everything is switched on. First, set up a new account with a U.S. address (we’re not suggesting you fake an address here, so use a friend’s address or something similar). “But,” you say, “I have no U.S. credit card. How do I pay?” This is the delicious workaround: You use your regular account in your own country to buy gift cards and apply them to the U.S. account. This will let you shop as normal for books. For this reason its a good idea to open up a second browser so you can stay logged in to both accounts simultaneously.

Once you have the new account, you’ll need to switch your Kindle over to point to it. This can be done in two ways, either by putting the Kindle’s serial number into the Kindle management page on the web, or just by logging out of you old account and into the new from the Kindle itself (from the Home page, hit Menu and choose Settings).

I was a little worried that my previously purchased content would disappear, but no, it all remains. Amazingly, this is also true of the iPhone Kindle app. De-and-re-register the iPhone to your new account and it will happily mix books bought on both. Whispersync, though, only works with the currently registered Kindle account.

Web browsing also works, and according the letter that Amazon will send to your Kindle when you try this hack, it is free, as is browsing the Kindle store. But it isn’t all so smooth: You now count as a U.S. customer who is roaming abroad. This incurs a $5 per-week fee to have newspapers and magazines delivered, and a $2 fee for book and single-title periodical downloads. The data fees for sending your own content also rise to $1 per megabyte.

Or do they? I applied a $10 voucher to my new account and was able to buy a $9.99 book. Clearly here, then, the $2 fee wasn’t applied, and as I have no credit card associated with the account, it cannot be charged. Even if it was, books typically cost a few bucks more for us foreigners anyway, so it would work out the same.

Could Amazon switch off this loophole? We guess your account could be closed, and the “experimental” web access could certainly be disabled (a shame, as I can now read Gadget Lab wherever I happen to be). On the other hand, anyone trying out this hack is clearly doing it in order to give Amazon more money. We hope that this might cause the company to turn a blind eye.

See Also:

• Crippleware Alert! International Kindle Gets No Web Access Outside U.S.
• Amazon Kills U.S. Kindle, Cuts International Price
• Hands-On With the International Kindle and Its Surprise Web Access
• Gadget Lab Guide: How to Un-Cripple Your International Kindle
• Kobo International E-Book Store Launches: Why Amazon Should Be Afraid

Photo: Charlie Sorrel

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:58 am

International Kindle: Hacked for Web Browsing, Full Catalog

Think the International Kindle was crippled? It was until we got our paws on it. Our own Charlie Sorrel describes how to gain web browsing and the full catalog on non-U.S. versions of the Kindle 2.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 22 Dec 2009 | 4:58 am

Sony Reader Daily Edition Beats Nook, Ships in Time for Christmas

Those people waiting at home, jumping up every time they hear a vehicle stop outside and desperately hoping that their Barnes & Noble Nook will turn up in time for Christmas Day, may now add another nagging doubt to their list: Maybe they should have bought a Sony.

Sony’s e-readers are shaping up to be the pick of a rather abundant crop of devices, with a degree of openness unheard of from Sony, and a model (literally) for every size of pocket. And now, the Reader Daily Edition is shipping. Anyone who pre-ordered the $400 device on or before December 20th should already have one plopping onto their doormat.

The Reader Daily Edition is the 7-inch touch-screen, 3G wireless equipped (AT&T) reader. Like the Kindle, the 3G is free for the life of the device, and you can - as the name “Daily” suggests - download newspapers direct, as well as books from the Sony Store. Newspapers are limited to The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune but more are promised.

Unlike the Kindle, the Reader Daily Edition supports the standard ePub format (in DRM’ed or open flavors) and will let you borrow books from libraries for up to three weeks (you’ll need a PC to actually do the downloading). In fact, the Reader Daily Edition looks to be the king of the e-books right now. And at $400, we guess it should be. Happy Christmas, Reader Daily Edition buyers!

Reader Daily Edition [SonyStyle]

See Also:

• Sony's E-Book Reader Adds Touchscreen, Wireless Downloads
• Showdown: Kindle 2 vs. Sony Reader
• Barnes & Noble Unveils Kindle-Killing, Dual-Screen 'Nook' E-Reader …
• Barnes & Noble Delays Nook Shipments To Stores
• Barnes & Noble Will Give Customers $100 If Nook Doesn't Arrive for …

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:52 am

The App Store Forgets It’s Not The Android Market, Temporarily Sells NES Emulator

As stringent (and arguably overzealous) as Apple’s App review policy is, things still slip through the cracks from time to time. I mean, who can forget the infamous baby shaking simulator slip-up? The latest bit of contraband to hit the App Store isn’t nearly as offensive – that is, unless you’re Nintendo.

Earlier today, an application called “Nescaline” popped up on the App Store. Everything about the application, from the name, to the copyrighted icon, to the very functionality of the application rang of something that Apple would generally deny without batting an eye.. and yet, there it was – for all of one day, at least.

You see, Nescaline is an emulator of 1985’s living room king, the Nintendo Entertainment System. By duplicating the functionality of the system’s hardware in software form, Nescaline would allow you to play NES games on your iPhone. You’re stuck with slightly frustrating touchscreen controls instead of the sharp-cornered, palm-destroying original controller – but hey, it was old school gaming on the go.

It’s worth noting that Nescaline didn’t include any copyrighted games out of the box, instead providing just a handful of community-made home brew games. However, if the user just so happened to know the URL of another ROM — be it another home brew game or an unlicensed copy of Super Mario — Nescaline would download the ROM to its internal library.

The legality of applications of this sort are endlessly debated, and remain in a bit of a legal gray area. Apple avoids any potential copyright battles by banning “executable code”, a term just vague enough to work wherever its convenient. They’ve thus far denied all emulator submissions, including those that had their licensing in order. If you want an emulator on the iPhone, you’ll have to jailbreak first.

Apple’s negative stance on emulators is something that fans of Android love to poke fun at, considering that emulators are amongst the most popular on Google’s platform. While Google’s not about to come out and officially support console emulation, the only apps they won’t sell are those that are malicious, explicitly illegal, or adult in nature – none of which fits the bill for most emulators.

Nescaline went up on the App Store early this morning, and was pulled by the end of the night. Assuming that this was an accident and not some App Store reviewer’s way of resigning, we’re left wondering: how’d this happen? The app’s description clearly explains everything – and even if they didn’t read a word of that, the app’s icon was a friggin’ Super Mario mushroom. Maybe the “Approve” and “Deny” buttons are just right next to each other.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: MobileCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 3:20 am

LG and Sprint launching something at CES – but what?

Call us crazy, but we don’t think you’d host a “Mobile Launch Party” at CES unless you were planning.. you know, a mobile launch of some sort – and when it comes to mobile launches, companies generally don’t co-host parties unless they’re launching a phone together.

So when we get a heads up letting us know that Sprint and LG will be throwing a party at CES, it’s a pretty clear sign that somethings up. While we can’t be 100% sure what they’re launching, we can make some pretty well educated guesses.

What it might be, but probably isn’t: LG and Sprint are pitching the party under the tagline of “Celebrate Style”. When it comes to LG phones, it doesn’t get much more stylish than their Prada line. Fortunately for us, they’ve already confirmed a Prada III is in the works. Celebrities, lavish parties, style – it all just fits together too well.

Alas, the fact that Sprint is involved makes it significantly less likely. If Sprint were to carry the Prada phone, it’d be the first time any of the Prada line appeared in CDMA form — not to mention it’d be the first time a Prada phone appeared on a US carrier, period.

What it might be, and probably is: The LG Lotus 2. We scooped all the details on the LG Lotus 2 back in October. Launching in January? Check. Heading for Sprint? Yep. Whether or not you think the original Lotus was all that stylish, Sprint certainly does; right out of the first line of the original press release:

Fans of the fashion runways will appreciate the couture style of LG Lotus, exclusive to Sprint.

So there you have it, folks. Until further evidence arises, consider our bets hedged on Sprint/LG launching the Lotus 2 at CES.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 22 Dec 2009 | 1:50 am